The White Swan, Chichester

The White Swan is situated on the main A road to the north of Bosham. Whilst visitors will flock to the much better located Anchor Bleu overlooking Bosham Quay, the White Swan appears to attract a much more local clientele. Whilst not having appeared in the Good Beer Guide since 2014, the White Star easily exceeded the expectations I'd set it. When arriving shortly after 7pm on a Sunday evening, I was conscious that the pub was likely to close at 8pm and sure enough staff were beginning to wrap things up during our visit, despite their being a fair few customers congregated in a small outdoor seating area to the front of the pub. The interior wraps itself around the bar and felt fairly narrow. Toilets were noticeably clean. But it was the real ale selection that caught my eye the most. Expecting only 2 or 3 beers, there were in fact 4 on. Hopback Summer Lightning is a regular beer. Guests were Goldmark New England NEIPA v4, Timothy Taylor Landlord & Only With Love Champion. I chose the NEIPA and declared it my favourite beer of the day. Certainly, with a quick walk around Bosham Quay and one more pub to round things off, it was an excellent way to end a day's crawling around West Sussex.

Unassuming white painted building perched on a roundabout on the A259 Chichester to Emsworth road that, after being shut for a while in 2009, underwent a fairly major refurbishment in 2011 to open as more of a gastro pub / restaurant, and then underwent further refurbishment again in 2012 after the property was affected by the bad flooding of that year This Grade II-listed free house still retains a stone flagged bar area with reclaimed timber beams, but then the wooden floored , gastro style restaurant section fill the rest of the internal space. Nicely done and very modern, but ultimately sterile and void of any character like all these Gastro pub makeovers are. We didn’t eat here as we were after more traditional pub fare and this is the type of place where your lunchtime ploughman’s choice is served on a lump of wood. But the restaurant is well renowned for its food and best checking trip advisor if you want to eat here. There were three ales available in the shape of Dark Star Hophead, Sharps Doom Bar and Hop Back Summer Lightning and the Summer Lightning was a well-kept pint. Would certainly consider to revisit and try it out as a restaurant, but for just a pint in a traditional pub you are better off heading down to the harbour at Bosham.

Official site of the White Swan, contains menus - www.thewhiteswanbosham.com

Official site of the White Swan, contains menus - www.thewhiteswanbosham.com