The Fountain, Chichester

The Fountain is a short walk north of both the bus station and the train station so is the ideal starting point for any beer crawl of Chichester. It is a Hall & Woodhouse pub and usually has four of the brewery beers available on the handpumps. For my visit these were Badger First Gold, Tanglefoot, Hopping gold and something with a paper badge with “New Badger” scribbled on it. I ducked this and went for the Tanglefoot which was perfectly fine. The Fountain is one of the oldest public houses in Chichester, dating from the early 1800’s and is built against the famous Roman city wall , a bit of which is still visible within the building itself. As mentioned below there are three distinct areas. The front bar has a nice spacious feel to it and has a couple of open real fires. The smaller central bar is cosy and dominated by the bar billiards table and then beyond this is the dining area of the pub. Then to the side of the pub is an outdoor drinking area with patio heaters. Not a lot seems to have changed in the three years since the last review and the décor remains shabby with chipped paint work and holes and tears in the seat upholstery and the whole place could do with a bit of TLC to bring it back to the level it deserves. Like most H&W pubs there is a focus on food at the Fountain, but cannot comment on that because we were only here for the beer so better off looking at Trip advisor if you are going to use it for this purpose. I found it a comfortable place for a beer, but more could be made of the fountain. However, I got the impression that their central location means they don’t have to try too hard, and consequently, they don’t.