Bookshop Alehouse, Bevois Valley, Southampton

Opened in early 2016, this charming micro pub is a clever conversion of a bookshop, retaining a large amount of shelf space and plenty of books for customers to peruse and indeed purchase. The pub has a bare boarded interior with a ramp to one side allowing wheelchair access to the raised bar at the back of the room. The bar counter has been covered with all manner of stickers which are well worth a look at and the bar back has a pump clip lined window to one side and is decorated with military caps, a Chinese waving cat and a stack of Good Beer Guides. A large board in a nook to the left of the bar lists the full beer range and there is a collection of board games on a shelf next to it. Simple seating runs down the left hand side of the main, lower section of the pub under the aforementioned bookcases which seem to stock a pretty eclectic range of reading material. The positioning of the tables here means it's not that easy to nose through everything when the tables are occupied, but this is a minor quibble. On the opposite side of the room, a table has been laid out with local listings and event flyers and the music theme is enhanced by walls decorated with some wonderful old posters for various musicians and bands. There are a few bits of Southampton FC memorabilia on show and a couple of pleasant murals have been painted on the walls, including one depicting the house from The Simpsons opposite the bar. There were four cask ales available on this visit - Dark Revolution Atomic, Dancing Cows Pony, Red Cat Tomcat and a beer called Oat Stout which I tried but failed to note the name of the brewer. This turned out to be an excellent drop of extremely flavoursome stout and I was tempted to stay for a second but forced myself to carry on with my crawl instead. There were four beers from Vibrant Forest available on keg dispense and four cider/perry options were on the go as well. The landlady here was very friendly as were the locals and we got chatting about the local pub scene and that afternoon's fixture at St Mary's among other things. I thought this was a high quality example of a micro pub with an interesting spin in the form of the bookshop. The pub recently won the local CAMRA branch's pub of the year award and judging by my experience, this recognition is fully deserved. I really enjoyed my visit here and thought it was the sort of place I could easily settle down for a good session. The pub is in a part of town blessed with plenty of top quality ale houses and I would suggest that this is the pick of the lot.