The Eclipse Inn, Winchester

Yes John, spot on.

Close to the City Museum and the corner of the cathedral green is The Eclipse Inn, a small, traditional attractive looking pub with a typical Tudor black and white frontage. Inside we find a small timber framed low ceilinged room with an old double sided fireplace and some bare brickwork. Seating is banquettes and settles around the sides of the room with seat covers that show, in places, evidence of having given good service over the years. The walls are decorated with several old theatrical posters and a fine large stuffed pike in a glass tank that was caught, so we are told, in 1896. The small bar counter is in the other corner of the room where is also a TV high up on the wall. The brick surround fireplace contains a wood burning stove. On the wall here is a framed potted history of the pub, from which we learn that the present building dates back to 1540. The splendid Tudor façade is more recent and only dates back to 1920. The building has had a long and varied history – it’s been a private house, a rectory ( to the Church of St Lawrence ) and, more recently, ( from 1750 onwards ), an ale house and pub. By this fireplace, we can pass through to a rear room which is more comfortable and seems to be used mainly for food. It’s plainly decorated, with an old Courage Best mirror really being the only item of note. Perhaps surprisingly, given the pub’s very central location, there’s very much an unpretentious, local pub feel to the place, although a basic pub grub menu is offered in an attempt to attract some of the tourist lunchtime trade Beers on were Ringwood Best, Doom Bar, Deuchars IPA and, from the local Flack Manor Brewery, Black Jack. The Ringwood Best - £ 3.40p – was pretty good and other customers were complimentary about the Black Jack. Interestingly, as I was to realise later, this was the only pub out of the four visited in the city, that wasn’t serving Flowerpot Brewery beers. This is a welcoming and friendly establishment, but I found it rather ordinary to be honest. Perhaps I’ve been in too many of these low ceilinged, timber framed and beamed pubs recently?

The only bad news about this pub is the lack of music means that conversations are going to be overheard. It can be difficult to keep a low-key conversation going here.

A pub which has quite an unusual feel, perhaps due to the lack of space but it has a reasonably warm atmosphere and Ringwood appears to be the Real Ale they sell.

This is a small, two room pub with a prime location close to the Cathedral and main shopping area. The front room is carpeted with white walls and dark beams, similar to those on the attractive exterior, and predominantly pew and banquette seating. The short bar counter is on the back wall to the left with a brick fireplace to the right. There are a few odds and ends adorning the walls, including a rather large fish which was mounted above our heads. A TV screen was on when we arrived, showing Andy Murray's ultimately doomed Wimbledon semi-final efforts. The second room at the back of the pub is even smaller, with a few cramped tables to choose from and all sorts of bits and bobs on the walls. A few customers were eating in here, but it seemed a bit dark and confined compared to the front room. There are a couple of benches out the front of the pub as well, which would make a nice spot for a drink overlooking the Cathedral and watching the world go by. Four hand pumps were dispensing Ringwood Forty Niner and Old Thumper, Jennings Cumberland and Sharp's Doom Bar. The Old Thumper seemed to be in very good shape and the barman was quite chatty and gave us a few pointers for the remainder of our crawl. There must be a temptation to change this pub in order to pander to the tourist trade, but it retains a local's feel in spite of its location and I would recommend it as a solid town centre option.