Neighbourhood pub in Shirley owned by HopBack brewery. A proper old fashioned pub offering good cask beers, food, relaxed and comfortable surroundings, and a friendly, chatty atmosphere. Probably more suited to older men like myself, rather than hipsters and students, this is a pub I like, and I wish it were nearer where I live.
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| Some of the beers on offer |
Date: Jan 2016. Score: 9
Visited with Ian on our pub crawl. There are plenty of good quality HopBack beers on offer, plus some from the Downton brewery, also in Salisbury, and the barmaid was friendly and attractive. Ian wasn't so keen because the smell from the cleaning fluids in the toilet had drifted into the pub.
We shared two beers - Red Ember from Hop Back, and a Stout from Daleside. Both decent beers in good condition.
Date: Nov 2016 Score: 8
No longer doing food, just rolls, this is still a cracking pub. Bright, clean, full of relaxed charm. This is a popular back street pub serving nine cask beers, mostly HopBack, but also Downton.
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| Ian with a Daleside Stout |
Visited with Ian on our pub crawl. There are plenty of good quality HopBack beers on offer, plus some from the Downton brewery, also in Salisbury, and the barmaid was friendly and attractive. Ian wasn't so keen because the smell from the cleaning fluids in the toilet had drifted into the pub.
We shared two beers - Red Ember from Hop Back, and a Stout from Daleside. Both decent beers in good condition.
Date: Nov 2016 Score: 8
No longer doing food, just rolls, this is still a cracking pub. Bright, clean, full of relaxed charm. This is a popular back street pub serving nine cask beers, mostly HopBack, but also Downton.
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| Rolls in cling film in place of cooked food |
The beers tend to be a bit samey - blonde and hoppy in the style if Summer Lightening, but they're always fresh and delicious. Music is soft, appealing, and at just the right volume - around me I can conversations, passing traffic, bird song, children playing in the nearby school and the plunk of darts in a dart board alongside songs from the Sixties. Nice.
Date: May 2019. Score: 8
The pub restarted doing food, but have stopped again. Cooked meals on a Sunday, warm pasties and sausage rolls rest of the week. They have also cut back on the cask beers offered. Whereas at one time they had up to ten casks in offer, now they only have two. The barman said they are planning to offer food on other days, but are unlikely to increase the number of beers.
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| Not fresh |
I had the Downton New Forest Ale, one of the two available. It is a low abv beer and appears to be kept lively with a cask breather, but the beer itself is not fresh. There were seven others who were in during my visit, all sitting at the bar chatting about the news that the Queen is dying.
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| General ambiance |
It's still a decent pub - the sort of place I'd like to have near me, but it's not quite the place it was. And it still has an unpleasant smell of stale carpets and toilet cleaner that I've noticed previously.
Date: Sept 2022. Score: 5
The pub closed in November 2022, shortly after my visit. It is up for sale at £495,000. Given the way that the pub has declined over the years I have known it, and the current economic climate, I doubt if anyone will buy it to keep it as a pub. But the council will be slow to grant a change of licence.
Date: March 2023 Score: N/A
Waterloo Arms
101 Waterloo Road
SO15 3BS
Open: Tues-Sun Noon to 11pm; Mon 5pm to 11pm
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