Surrey Street, Portsmouth

Official site of Surrey Street - www.surreystreetbar.co.uk

Official site of Surrey Street - www.surreystreetbar.co.uk

A large high street Victorian pub by appearance. There are two main bar areas entered from the front, although the right hand end door, which leads to a games area with a a pool table, was closed, presumably to encourage people into the realm of the World's worst septuagenarian DJ ('DJ Tom The Vinyl'). He sought to entertain his peer group with well over 9 different 7” rock and/or roll records from the 1950s in the wood-floored public bar area. There were some interesting decorative features including stained glass panels and cast iron radiators. There were 3 handpumps, two of which had reversed clips and the third of which dispensed vinegar. The saving grace was a good selection of bottled beers, not over-cooled, although these were served in Pepsi glasses, which made the whole experience a bit surreal. We found the locals tolerant (and, indeed, tolerable) and the staff very friendly and helpful. Even the DJ was well behaved despite the absence of his carer. Overall, a good, solid town pub, worth a visit for the novelty value, but it needs to sort out its beer.

The Surrey Arms is siuated in Portsmouth city centre and it is fairly close to the train station. Once inside there were two rooms and we had a drink in the room at the front this was quite a nice room to have a drink in with very comfortable seating and a nice atmosphere. When we visited this pub it was a Whitbread tied house and there were two real ales on the bar we had a drink of Whitbread Flowers bitter and this was a nice drink the other beer was Boddingtons bitter. This was a nice pub to sit and relax over a pint. Pub visited 18/2/1999 Photo taken 20/2/1999