Barley Mow, Southsea

This is a comfortable, traditional two bar local's pub in the back streets of Southsea. Much like ETA's experience below, my introduction to this pub was via the deserted games room on the right hand side of the building. Darts and pool seemed to be the order of the day in here, with basic seating around the perimeter and a few photos of various famous faces on the walls. It looked like a decent enough bar, but the lack of other customers and an ale-free servery suggested that I'd be better off in the main lounge through the other entrance. Here I found a carpeted room with the servery on the right hand wall. The bar has a dark wood counter and stained glass canopy whilst opposite there is a large ,open seating space with a pillar in the centre. Pew and standard seating through the main part of the room fills up a lot of the space and there was a small snug of sorts alongside the bar, which I didn't explore properly. The place felt pretty homely thanks to the dark wood panels and brick fireplace and various old photos lined the walls with a modern photo montage next to the bar. A huge beer bottle collection above the bar caught my eye and there was an upright piano to the left with old wine and port casks on top, whilst a TV screen remained off in favour of music from a local radio station. A door to the rear leads out to a decent garden which was very popular in the dying light of a warm summer's evening. The pub's ale range doesn't look out of place alongside those found in other nearby ale houses, with options on this visit comprising Fullers London Pride, Gales HSB, Theakston Black Bull Bitter, Thwaites Lancaster Bomber, Morland Old Speckled Hen, Triple fff Moondance and Piddle Slasher with Irving Invincible in a cask on the end of the bar. My pint of the Moondance continued a run of excellent quality beer on my crawl around town, which I enjoyed whilst taking in the pub's warm ambiance. This is another quality back street pub which is well worth adding to any crawl around the area. I though the place had got a lot of the basics right, creating an environment in which it was very easy to settle down and enjoy a quality pint. It maybe falls just marginally short of the towns top watering holes, but I really enjoyed this visit and will make an effort to return.

A bit of a time warp pub this one but in a good way,there are two bars, public and saloon but not interconnected internally ,except from behind the bar itself,the public bar seems to be not in general use despite housing a pool table, all the action appears to be in the saloon bar. Very much a locals bar, there are actually 9 handpumps here although it took a while to spot the detached 9th pump hidden behind the general bar clutter, this was serving Old Rosie Cider, beers on the more prominently visual pumps were, Greene King Abbot, Otter Ale, Ruddles County,Gales HSB, London Pride, Flack Manor Union Flack, Harvistoun Bitter and Twisted and Portobello Northern Line Milk Stout, not a bad selection for a back street boozer, I had a pint each of the latter two and they were in decent nick,another nailed on pub for a crawl.

This Victorian GBG regular, currently owned by Enterprise, is best described as chaotic. I fell into the trap of first going into the small corner bar, The Sports bar, which was completely deserted. The pool table and dartboard looked lonely, very much like a games room on the Marie Celeste. The main Lounge Bar, however, was much livelier. It is a vibrant, fun-filled room with a gaming machine, TV screen (both mute, thankfully), a second pool table and a variety of humans scattered around. The latter were all at different points on the un-dead:alive continuum and were at differing levels of consciousness, some speaking in French. A piano, a stuffed dragon and what looked like a tiger’s rear end also caught my eye, but this was after about my seventh pint so shouldn’t be taken as a confirmed sighting. There were 6 active handpumps on the bar dispensing DBC’s Jurassic Coast and Clout, Mister Chubb’s Lunchtime Bitter, faux-HSB, Oakleaf Stout and one I forgot to write down. This is a must for anyone who enjoys a surreal experience along with high quality real ale.

Ringwood Best, Hammerpot Red Hunter, Yates YSD (went), Hogs Back Winter Ale, HSB, Pride, fff Pressed Rat & Warthog. Two-roomed pub, separate entrances, plain public bar with no handpumps at the servery, pool table & two dartboards. Larger more atmospheric saloon, carpetted, wood tables, upholstered chairs, old jukebox, upright piano in corner, homey lounge style area to rt of bar with more tables, sofas, real fire (unlit). Wood panelled walls carry plenty of naval photos, nice wood canopy bar-surround with upper glasswork lead-lights. Pleasant flagstoned patio beer garden.The only one of 3 target pubs in the immediate area to open early Sat (11:00), and good bluesy soundtrack and good beer make this, for me, a must visit in Portsmouth.