The Northcote, Southsea

A respectable and proper back street pub with two separate bars. One side is a comfortable lounge, the other is a larger public bar with pool and darts and both have a traditional feel. Large patio garden at rear. Some excellent beers on offer and kept in good condition. Regulars are Landlord, Irving Invincible, Long Man American Pale Ale and a house beer from Wadsworth, plus guests.

A large two roomed pub in the backstreets, a pool table and dartboard for entertainment. Four pumps in each room, beers were Long Man APA,Harveys Sussex Best, T.T Landlord and Irving Invincible. Nice enough.

This is a grand looking pub and former hotel with an impressive facade that includes smart brick banding and glazed tile panels. You enter into the front Lounge Bar – an attractive carpeted room with the servery to the left, along the rear wall. The bar has a nice dark wood counter and an unusual bar back fitted with windows that allow you to look through to the Public Bar. The lounge has very nice, well upholstered seating around the perimeter and various nicely presented displays of ceramics and the like. The room also seems to have a bit of a Sherlock Holmes theme which, as I discovered in the Lord Palmerston earlier in the day, is probably to do with Conan Doyle’s links to Southsea (he wrote the first two Holmes novels whilst practising as a doctor on nearby Elm Grove). A passageway to the left leads through to a huge Public Bar, with an empty area to the left filled by a pool table and another empty space on a raised platform to the rear dedicated to darts. Most of the seating was to the right, with a long bar counter running in an L-shape along the front wall. I thought the right hand side of this room was quite a pleasant space to sit and relax, but the rest of the room was a bit spartan and too big to generate much of an atmosphere. A TV screen near the end of the bar was showing a sports round-up show and there was music playing quietly in the background. Past the pool table, a door leads out to a patio garden, which looked a bit basic but seemed popular enough. There were five ales available here and I was pleased to see a personal favourite – Long Man American Pale Ale – available, so I ordered a pint before going off for a snoop around the premises. This was a very nice pint, suggesting that these guys certainly know how to keep their beer properly. This is a great example of a two bar pub, with its basic, down-to-earth Public Bar and plush, attractive Lounge Bar offering very different pub experiences. I thought the lounge in particular was a lovely place in which to stop off and enjoy some quality beer and whilst this place doesn’t quite have the charm to match up to the town’s classic back street boozers, it at least provides a good alternative to them and is somewhere I would certainly consider returning to.

Well described by Maldenman, below. There is no WiFi and dogs are not permitted. I found the locals a bit strange and cliquey, though they were quite hospitable to visiting darts teams. Five ales on: Irving Intrepid and Invincible, 6X, Landlord and Long Man APA. OK for a couple of beers and I might include on a crawl but wouldn't make an evening of it.