The Eldon Arms, Southsea

Suddenly closed just before Christmas when landlord left Enterprise Inns boarded it up. Requested to mark as closed. Check before making a journey http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/our-region/portsmouth/fate-of-portsmouth-pub-in-doubt-after-sudden-closure-1-7753283

With time for one last pint before my train home, I decided to pop into the Eldon Arms, perhaps attracted by its fine tiled exterior or maybe, as a proud son of Dorset, drawn by the nostalgic old Eldridge Pope signage. Inside, you find a deceptively large room, carpeted through the centre where two rows of tables and chairs run all the way to the servery on the back wall. To the left there is a step down to an area filed with a table football game and some comfy seating whilst further back there is a space partly screened from the rest of the pub by some huge pillars and the end of the bar. Back here you'll find a lounge style area with leather sofas and a rather dull collection of photos plus the unexpected discovery of a bar billiards table. The right side of the pub is somewhat more appealing, with slimmer pillars covered with pump clips preventing it from becoming too dark and obscured. On this side you'll find a pool table flanked by some bookcases, a decent fireplace and an upright piano. More seating is available here in a sizeable area with its own fireplace. There is a great looking garden to the rear but it was practically empty on a warm Saturday evening, as was the pub itself, in sharp contrast to the other pubs I visited that afternoon. I noted a juke box over to one side of the room, but this was mere ornamentation whilst the dubious playlist of a local radio station filled the pub. Four handpulls on the bar offered Fullers London Pride, Gales HSB, St Austell Tribute and Irving Spinnaker. Not the most exciting range perhaps, but I was pleased to see a local brew available, so I gave the Spinnaker a try and found it in pretty good shape, if not quite up to the excellent standards of the previous three pubs I'd visited. The staff were a little blunt and seemed bored, so I was happy to plonk myself down away from the bar and count down the minutes until my train. This place suggested a lot of promise, but I found it was all a little bit of an anti-climax in the end. The place has lost a lot of its character (most of what remains can be seen on the façade rather than inside) and an empty pub on an otherwise busy Saturday evening crawl was a disorientating feeling and perhaps an ominous sign. It certainly still had positives, not least some decent beer and a nice garden, but I'd probably drop this one from future crawls.

The attractive tiled exterior of the former Eldridge Pope Brewery is superb with various interesting features worth spending a minute to look at before venturing inside. Once in, a large single carpeted room with the bar on the back wall, the room returns slightly each end where we have a games area to the left with bar billiards, pool and darts. The opposite side has an open food servery and beyond is a decent garden. Circular iron columns, nicotine coloured or stained embossed wallpaper, barrels on a high ledge, framed colourful old flyers for holidays in Southsea and a ceiling covered in Union, St George and Military flags which spoil the ambience a bit. Brewery and Distillery mirrors. Smooth Radio via the TV was irritating and unnecessary. Eight handpumps, only four on, Pride, Tribute, HSB, plus Dark Star APA. A nice pub if a bit tired. Worth a look in.