The Hyde Tavern, Winchester

Official site of The Hyde Tavern, contains event details - www.hydetavern.co.uk

Official site of The Hyde Tavern, contains event details - www.hydetavern.co.uk

The Hyde Tavern is a small 15th century timber framed building, about 15 minutes walk away from the city centre. As we approach the pub, we immediately notice the impressive double gabled frontage. Descending down a few steps below street level, we enter a small low ceilinged room with a slightly uneven floor and walls, and dark beams along the length of the ceiling. The bar area is decorated with hops. In one corner is a fine warming fireplace. A rear room is equally small. Notably, here is a collection of sweets in large bottles on a high shelf behind the bar. The room has its own bar counter, but the handpumps and casks on stillage are in the front bar. Apparently, there’s a delightful garden at the rear which I missed out on seeing as darkness had fallen. On my recent early evening visit, the pub appeared to have recently had new furniture delivered ( new owners presumably ) as most of the chairs and tables still had price tags on them. I didn’t want to say anything to Her Ladyship, but some of the patterned chair covers didn’t really sit comfortably with the age and traditional feel of the interior. No food is served, but you’re evidently allowed to bring in food from local takeaways. On my visit, a group of 4 were devouring with gusto large pizzas that looked large enough to feed the whole pub. Unfortunately, the food smell did rather dominate the small room for a while. 3 beers were on handpumps and 2 further beers on gravity direct from the barrel. The Flowerpot Bitter was fine. Harveys Best was also on. The pub is listed in the 2012 CAMRA Good Beer Guide. It’s well worth the short walk from the city centre to find this one, but do note the restricted opening hours, particularly in the first half of the week

The atmosphere can make one feel uncomfortable sometimes, just that feeling of being watched you know.

This attractive double gabled pub has the feeling of a rural country pub rather than that of somewhere that is only a 5-10 minute walk from Winchester train station. The entrance takes you into a small, cosy front bar with dark, hop-lined beams and bench and low stool seating. A doorway to the left of the bar counter leads to a rear room which has standard tables and chairs, dark panelled walls with white wallpaper, some modern art prints and a small brick fireplace. The room has its own bar as well, but there are only keg products on display here. The pub also has a decent beer garden with bench seating and some shelter in the shape of a basic gazebo, all of which can be accessed via a flight of stairs given that it is on a lower level than the rest of the pub. The bar had three handpumps offering Ballard's Midhurst Mild, Flowerpots Bitter and Harvey’s Best, with two more beers on stilage behind the bar - Flowerpots Perridge Pale and Bowman's Swift One. I tried a pint of the Swift One which was nice and fresh straight from the barrel. A polypin of Wild West Cider was set up on the rear bar counter as well. This is a nice and homely feeling pub and a suitable place to bring our Winchester crawl to an end. I would certainly make a point of returning to this pub the next time I'm in town.