The Westgate, Winchester

This fairly large street corner pub has been decorated in a rather bland gastro pub style, with lots of pastel coloured walls and dark wood flooring. As such, the place loses a bit of its character, as it clearly has some interesting old features - most notably the large windows which bear the pub's name. The main bar follows the curve of the building and is furnished with banquette seating, a few comfy chairs and a leather sofa. The walls are decorated with a mixture of military prints and rugby photographs, with a framed rugby shirt also apparent on one wall. There is also a painting showing a scene from the pub which is hung at roughly the position which the artist would have stood to capture the scene. There is a second room to the left of the bar which is in a raised area and has tables set up for diners although there was no-one eating when we visited. There were three ales on the four handpulls - Ringwood Forty Niner and Best and Jennings Cumberland. I gave the Jennings a try and thought it was in pretty good shape. The barman seemed very friendly and chatted to us for a while and overall I got the feeling that this is the sort of place that tries to make everyone feel welcome. I thought this was a nice enough pub with decent beer and friendly staff, but the place felt a little bit too bland to make it truly memorable.