The Old Cross, Chichester

Sat near the top end of Chichester's central retail district, this is a pleasant looking pub with a simple, single room interior. There's plenty of evidence of a former two bar layout, not least the two separate entrances that now lead into the same wide room. Once inside, you find yourself in a part bare boarded, part quarry stone tile floored room with the servery in the centre of the rear wall. There's ample seating throughout, including in some nice leaded front window bays, on a raised platform to the rear and in plentiful supply through the mid section and to either side of the bar. Much of this is in the form of simple tables and chairs, but there are a few comfier options to be found and I believe there is an overspill room upstairs with plenty more seating, although I didn't explore it myself. The bar has a decent, traditional dark wood counter contrasted by a modern, white tile bar back of the sort you might expect to find in a craft beer bar. The decor is a bit corporate feeling, with blackboards, uninteresting paintings, promotional posters and the like, but nothing particularly memorable. There's a beer garden to the rear and a few picnic benches have been set out on the pedestrianised street out the front, which are great for a bit of people watching. The ale range was far more extensive than I'd anticipated, with the selection amounting to Greene King IPA, St Austell Tribute, Black Sheep Bitter and Morland Old Speckled Hen. The Tribute was on good form and we took the chance to grab some food from the good value menu, and found that the meals were nothing special, but fine for the price. There was a good Sunday afternoon crowd both inside and out on a bright summer's afternoon. I didn't know anything about this pub prior to visiting, so it was nice to find four cask options on the bar, even if they were all national brands. The knocked through interior and corporate design scheme mean that the place is fairly unmemorable and it's therefore hard to see how this pub can challenge some of the better ale houses around the city. Having said that, it's a solid enough place and a decent option to pad out a crawl. Date of visit - 11th August 2024

Really nice pub in North Street, lovely place to sit outside in Summer on the pedestrian pathway while plenty of tables inside. The pub serve's very good meals and also shows live sporting event which makes it very popular with a mixed clientele. Also a good selection of draught beers an Ciders at reasonable prices for Chichester.

Town centre pub, tastefully refurnished in a modern style with paved floor and matt painted wood, which detracts a bit from the aged-looking exterior. Ales from Greene king plus a guest (TEA).