Black Boy, Winchester

Where do I start, a seriously quirky place with numerous rooms, nooks and crannies, chock full of the oddest collection of paraphenalia I think have ever seen in a pub. There is no way I can list them all but there are stuffed animals, (a donkey, leopard, a baboon in a kilt and a gull in a cage), plastic and papier mache hams hanging from a beam, an aga, suspended model aeroplanes, an old set of handpumps, clocks, tin and cast iron signs, blow lamps, hundreds of key rings hanging from a ceiling, an upside down Christmas tree, a collection of fire buckets, dried chilli peppers adorn a window surround, numerous book cases all around and so much more. One set of seats are numbered and tip up, looks like they are reclaimed from a football stadium somewhere, I'd rather like to know which one. There is also a bar football table. Part wooden and part stone flagged floors, old timber beamed ceilings. Outside seating to the front and also the side with an area under the cover of a pergola. Beers were, Flowerpot "Flowerpots", Hop Back Summer Lightning, Ringwood Best Bitter, Andwell King John plus one badged Black Boy Bitter; I'm not sure what this is, the barmaid thought it was from Ringwood but as they already had BB it wouldn't add up. An interesting place with good beer. Not one to miss on a Winchester crawl. Prices on a par with other pubs visited, not a cheap town for beer with prices similar to London, generally £3+.

One of the oddest pubs in Britain but one of the best for ale. It all looks very old but cunning decoration and weird collections deceive the eye here. There are lots of rooms or separate drinking/dining areas containing mad collections of what can only be described as 'stuff'. Particularly macabre is the bit with plastic cuts of meat, animal heads and carcasses, all enhanced with shotgun stocks. The beer is generally excellent from local microbreweries, plus some more unusual kegs dispensed from those strange little dumpy barrel shaped fonts. Pricing is reasonable for Winchester.

Official site of the Black Boy, includes real ale listing - www.theblackboypub.com

Official site of the Black Boy, includes real ale listing - www.theblackboypub.com

Excellent independent real ale pub with a very quirky interior. Good selection of local beers. Interior reflects the eclectic tastes of the landlord. Well worth seeking out as it is about ten to fifteen minutes walk along the river from the centre of town. Its more of a homely version of the Wykham!