Piries Bar, Horsham

Tucked away down an easily overlooked alleyway between the Market Square and Piries Place, this is a cosy, atmospheric little pub that is worth seeking out. You enter directly into the compact ground floor bar which has modern floorboards, currently covered in tape showing the pub’s one-way system, lots of dark timber beams and whitewashed walls, although the rear wall has been painted red and strewn with fairy lights, which creates a surprisingly warm feeling corner, served by a table with hard bench seating and a high table surrounded by bar stools. The front part of the room only has enough space for three more tables, two of which are served by a long banquette down the left-hand wall and the other by low stools. The servery is along the rear part of the right-hand wall and has a nice timber-frame counter with brick infill and a bare brick, backlit bar back under a pump-clip lined canopy. There is some decent wood panelling around the room, most notably alongside the servery, where a large clock and promotional blackboards fill much of the wall space. Stairs to the front right lead up to a first-floor seating area which the current restrictions on pub wandering prevented me from checking out. Meanwhile, a door to the left takes you into a small side room in what looks a bit like an extension built over a former courtyard, with quarry stone flooring and a couple more tables and benches, but not much in the way of atmosphere or décor. ‘80s pop hits played quietly in the background throughout the duration of my visit and there was a reasonable turnout shortly after midday opening on a Saturday afternoon, with most of the ground floor tables already occupied. A friendly barman showed me to my table and provided me with a menu that helpfully listed their full drink range which included two cask ales on their three handpulls – Taylor Landlord and Gun Extra Pale. The latter was £3.80 a pint and was pretty much on its last legs – drinkable but not all that far from being too far gone. Given the current circumstances, I’m inclined to be a bit more lenient on the occasional worse-for-wear pint and would instead point to this pub’s listing in recent editions of the Good Beer Guide as a better indicator of ale quality. I thought this was a really nice, relaxed place for an afternoon drink. The traditional feel of the bar area was an unexpected bonus for me and I thought it was conducive to a good atmosphere in comfortable surrounds. Perhaps not quite up there with the town’s best pubs, but certainly not all that far behind, this is well worth adding to a town centre pub crawl.

Fine old building down an alley off the high street, good choice of beers

Located down an alley and easily missed is Piries Bar that is open from 11:00 (midday on Sundays) until midnight (1am Friday, Saturday and Sunday). This place is very cosy with a small bar area with limited seating and an adjacent lean-to that offers another couple of tables. More seating is available upstairs, but I did not venture up there during my recent Saturday lunchtime visit. The upstairs area that can hold 30 at a squeeze and the lean-to that can hold 20 at a bigger squeeze are both available for free hire. Monthly karaoke events are held on Sunday nights and there is a quiz every Tuesday from 20:00. I spotted a television that was muted and I didn’t see any live sport advertisements, but there was some background music playing. The bar supports three hand pumps that were drawing Long Man Brewery’s Long Blonde and Sussex pride alongside Neptune. There was also a selection of craft beers along the back bar and the keg range was Fosters, Kronenburg, Estrella, Long Man Brewery’s Crafty Blonde, Aspalls’ cider and Guinness. Food is available and as an indication of price a burger and chips is priced at £5.50. I found the service to be very friendly and I enjoyed my visit here, but I am wary that it wouldn’t take that many people to make it uncomfortably busy. I would pop back in if passing.

Located in an alley leading from the Carfax to Piries Place, first impressions are of an old and small building. Inside, these impressions are confirmed: just a small room with bar, with a narrow conservatory adjacent providing a few more seats. There's upstairs, too, but just three tables there. Piries is popular with a young crowd, so the music's loud (to this reviewer's ageing ears, at least). Several lagers are on the bar, although Warsteiner was a notable addition to the standard range. Surprisingly, given the target market, there's an ale selection too: Harvey's Sussex Best has recently been joined by Dark Star Hophead - probably the only place in town where this is a regular, so worth visiting for that reason alone.