The Grosvenor, Stockbridge

Well described by Quinno, below. I would add that there is a small pleasant garden at the back, and that they hold regular live jazz evenings. For a supposedly genteel venue there is a lot of noise – the din from the coffee machine in the bar is awful, the staff seem to do a lot of banging and crashing behind the bar, the jukebox is really irritating and a pointless fire alarm was going off and being ignored the whole time we were there. The house ale wasn't available, leaving GK IPA and Abbot, both of which tasted odd. Probably fine as a B&B, but not a venue of choice.

A hotel bar operated by Greene King. The wonky lettering outside is reminiscent of Fawlty Towers and there were a couple of bar incidents (the Polish barmaid was clearly a modern Manuel) that did make me think the two share a little bit of DNA. The bar is carpeted and tidy enough inside with various fish pictures and ephemera, presumably due to the location by the River Test. Three ales, GK IPA, Abbot (ok) and a house beer which I deduced was probably a GK Morlands rebadge. There isn’t much of a reason to re-do this one.

A Georgian Hotel with 26 rooms, the Grosvenor Hotel sits in the middle of Stockbridge High Street. It’s part of the Old English Inns chain (e.g. managed but not owned by Green King), and although that does mean the beer choice is the usual uninspiring options of IPA, Abbott and Old Speckled Hen, it does mean the food menu is more aligned to what one would know as pub grub options when compared to the other more gastro driven options down the high street. Internally there is a bar area (the bankside bar), which is a bit old fashioned décor, but comfortable enough with an open fireplace and leather settee seating. And then there is a wood panelled wood floored dining room known as the Tom Cannon restaurant. Now this may be an unfair and even incorrect comment, but I got the impression that The Grosvenor Hotel attracted the more mature local in Stockbridge while the more moneyed trendy things frequent the Gastro pubs and they certainly seemed to be moving more coffees than pints on the Sunday lunchtime I was in.

Official site of the Grosvenor Hotel - www.thegrosvenor-hotel.com