Pubs and Beer in Southampton: The Ice House, Shirley

Thursday 13 October 2016

The Ice House, Shirley

Owned by Enterprise Inns. Interesting looking place next to Shirley Pond Park in the Warren area. The Park is part of Lordsdale Greenway - one of a series of narrow green spaces or "Greenways" that follow ancient streams in Southampton.

The pond in Shirley Pond park

This greenway partially surrounds in a semi-circle an area called The Warren or Shirley Warren, which lays just below the general hospital, and seems to be considered one of the worse areas of Southampton, with violence and attacks on people and animals fairly commonplace. It seemed a fairly average working class area to me, but one local pub, the Shield and Dagger, was closed down by the police and compulsorily sold off by the council after one too many mass brawls, and teenagers kill the ducks and attack people with catapults in the park. The Ice House itself was attacked by youths with weapons in October 2018, and one woman seriously injured.

An early photo when the pub was owned by Fullers
This building is now the two houses next door (174/176)

The Ice House is built over and named after an ice store or ice well, the remains of which still exist in the cellar. The ice was collected from Shirley Pond and then stored in the well. There's no food and no cask beers in The Ice House. The landlady said they tried, but had to throw the beer away as they couldn't sell enough in three days - fair enough; I'd rather a pub not sell cask at all than attempt to sell sour cask. They offer a keg Guinness Golden Ale served chilled.

The nearest the pub comes to a beer that's not a keg lager is this keg "ale".
Enterprise Inns limit what the landlords can offer, and keykegs are not available.

A large, clean and tidy locals pub where they have arm wrestling competitions, and all the regulars support Brexit and don't like immigrants.

It's an interesting pub with potential

I liked the place, but things turned cold when I said I wasn't in favour of Brexit, and that my wife is French. As such not a pub I'm likely to visit again until Brexit has settled, and the hostility toward non-British people is not so open.

Date: Oct 2016 Score: 4

I'm in the area, and curious as to how things currently are at The Ice House. But, despite Google saying that the pub is open, it was closed, and the door locked. I'll come back some other time.

Looking on their Facebook page they have the occasional live band. That's cool.

Date: Aug 2024 Score: N/A