Winchester Gate, Salisbury

Located on the fringes of the city centre, on the opposite side of the busy A36, this is an unusual pub and live music venue. You enter into a corridor with the main bar to the right, a separate seating area to the left and the venue and garden further towards the rear. The bar area is a fairly shallow but wide room that extends a long way to the right. The bar is along the rear wall and has a chequered tile floor around a modern tongue and groove counter with a simple bar back that incorporates what appears to be a former fireplace, now blocked off and with a small pump clip collection to one side. Hard bench and padded banquette seating runs around the rest of the room’s perimeter, with plenty of chairs in support. The room has low tongue and groove wall panels, with quite a dark colour scheme on the upper sections, which is offset by plenty of fairy lights and other muted light sources, helping to create a surprisingly warm feel. The walls are decorated with a series of brightly coloured, framed gig posters, plus a few scruffier flyers for upcoming shows at the pub. The side room was closed when I arrived shortly after opening, so I couldn’t explore properly. But a glimpse through the window suggested it offered quite a bit of additional table and chair seating. I was also unable to explore the garden or venue, but did catch sight of a large circus-style tent out the back which has been furnished to quite a high standard and acts as an outdoor venue and function room. A decent soundtrack was playing in the background throughout the course of my visit, and the bar staff were still busty with their Monday cleaning routine, which weirdly included drying the floor in the main bar by hand using what looked like kitchen roll! Live music venues are never a great source of cask ale, but this place seems to buck the trend, with four operational handpulls dispensing Southbourne Headlander, Hattie Brown’s Sirius, and Yeovil Hop 242 and Stout Hearted, with three real ciders available from boxes stacked up on the bar back. My pint of the Stout Hearted felt like a Monday opening-time effort and was probably the most disappointing beer of the day. I really wanted to like this place, as it seemed to have a lot of good things going for it, but I left feeling a little let-down, perhaps because of the dodgy pint, the inability to fully explore or the lack of any other customers. Bonus points for being a live music venue with an interesting ale range and for putting on a roster of interesting up and coming acts, but I’d want much better ale quality if I were to consider a return.

Called in while doing a trip round Salisbury area pubs and found a couple of Downton beers plus Sixpenny Cranbourne Chaser which we tried along with Cross Bay California Dreamin, both of which were good. Loved the beer garden at the rear.

Left hand bar was completely empty Sat 14:00, to the right the atmosphere was local, chatty & friendly. Nothing exceptional about décor or layout, pool table to far end, but feels like a venue for a decent pint and a chat & a laugh. Keystone Large One, Hobden's Golden Delirious, GFB. Too many pubs on our list to stay for 2nd pint, which made it rather embarrassing that a second game of pool lasted forever, whilst our empty glasses had to remain unfilled! To the most recent anonymous comment (why?) I would say that this couldn't have a feel further away from being a 'foodie joint'.

Another good pub as found by Malden Man a few days before my own visit,It was unfortunately empty apart from myself and my drinking partner for the day,it did however feel like a real pub and I felt immediately at home here.My pint of Itchen Valley QED was pretty decent as well, I did somehow manage to miss the well advertised CAMRA discount until it was to late, but never mind,another pub for the return list.

Cut off rather from town by virtue of being the other side of the four lane A36 rumbling past, this pub is still worth the effort of getting to. In fact it isn't too difficult at all as there are occasional underpasses saving a long trek around and making the pub easy to double up with the ever excellent Wyndham Arms. Once inside there are two rooms, the larger room having the bar and also a pool table down one end. The smaller side room has a stage, mixing decks and also a dartboard. Going by the posters all over the place, live music is big here. The main bar has a carpeted floor and regular seating, décor is mostly gig flyers but there was also a couple of old maps and pictures of Stonehenge. Lower walls are wainscoted, there is a bit of beamed ceiling, board games on a shelf and newspapers in a rack. A decent beer selection, Box Clever Soul Train, Sixpenny Brewery Jack Ale, Hop Back Crop Circle and Three Castles Vale Ale. A beer festival is advertised for the second week of August, I believe this may be set up in the rear garden which I didn't get round to having a look at. CAMRA card discount of 20p/10p. A sign written in biro advised tha.t the rolls were sold out, more tomorrow so I suppose this is the food option here, a simple quick and easy food fix. Worth heading under the road for especially if taking in The Wyndham.