Firehouse, Southampton Central

Student pub round the back of the high street. Sparse, and with plenty of bare wood, there are two pool tables and punk rock playing loudly but not aggressively. Laid back atmosphere. Two Greene King cask ales. I had Bonkers Conkers, which tasted of green apples.

Cask beer selection

An ok pub if you're young and like punk and rock music. There's a new student accommodation block almost next door. If I was a student staying there I could see myself having some fun nights here.

The place will be demolished at the end of 2020 to make way for a block of flats. (It's now 2021, and the place is still standing!)

Date: Sept 2019.   Score: 5

Not yet open, and no news as to when it will be. Website and Facebook are still giving news about re-opening in 2020. 

Date: April 2021

Vincents Walk
Southampton
SO14 1JY

Opens: Noon to past Midnight 


* Facebook 
* Firehouse
* TripAdvisor
* WhatPub

Blue Keys Hotel, Southampton (Closed - victim of lockdown)

Slightly off the beaten track, so I had not previously noticed this place. It's a hotel with a bar serving one cask ( on my visit), and is  a restaurant in the evenings. The bar is clean, and has been recently refurbished, but has a Seventies feel. It somehow works inside an older building. There's an attractive beer garden area. It's an ok place, albeit feeling more like a hotel lobby than a pub. Food only in the evening. OK place if you're local and don't want to walk further for a proper pub, but not a place I would otherwise recommend as worth seeking out.

The cask beer

The ambiance

The building is in a residential area, and was originally a house. According to CAMRA it was used as a girls school after the war before being converted into a pub.

Date: Sept 2019.  Score: 5


82 Northlands Road
Southampton
SO15 2LH

Place is closed, and has been since March 2020. It is not listed on the Enterprise (now Stonegate) pub list, and the pub/hotel website is down. Reviews on TripAdvisor is that of customers who had rooms booked, but when they turned up the place had closed. I'm marking this as closed for now - victim of the lockdown. 

Date: April 2021 

The building has been bought by a new, small, Southampton based hotel company, Jamba Leisure. Unclear if the company owns any other hotels. 

Date: Feb 2023


Open: Midday to 10.30pm

Food: Evenings only

Owner: Enterprise Inns


* BlueKeysHotel (website not active as of April 2021) 
* WhatPub
* TripAdvisor1 / TripAdvisor2
* BITE

***

Enterprise Inns (Ei Group)

Winston Hotel, Shirley

Place has a new owner,  and has been totally refurbished. All old reviews on TripAdvisor have been removed (understandably, as the place had acquired a bad reputation). Returning this Thursday to check it out. 

Date: April 20 2021 

Currently (April 2021) drinking and eating is outside only. We did step into the bar area and noted that it had been cleaned up, and is no longer smelly. Cask beer not currently available, so I was given a pint of keg Lagunitas IPA, without being told it was 6.2%. Ouch! It was light and drinkable, and certainly didn't feel like 6.2%. Good job I only had the one pint. I did feel the impact when I was home, and felt a little tired...

The seating area outside is very pleasant. It's an L-shaped grassy area - with one end the car park, and the other end a child's play area - a path dissects the two areas where they join on the corner. Even though the areas comfortably separate into two, and there is a child's area in one of them, people are allowed to smoke wherever they want. We are making such an effort to stop people from breathing in Covid, yet pubs like this don't seem to give any thought to protecting non-smokers and children from breathing in the poisons like tar, carbon monoxide and arsenic from cigarette smoke.  1% of all deaths in the world are non-smokers breathing in the fumes from smokers - 165,000 children die every year from passive smoking. I mentioned it to the waitress, who simply shrugged. Shortly after being served our food, a man sat at the table next to us and started smoking, so we had to move away. He was the only one in our section who smoked, yet he affected (and infected) everyone else. When we left we noted that the end table in the other section had smokers, while the other tables did not. It would make sense to put the smokers together and keep them away from the majority of non-smokers (only 14.1% of people in the UK are still cigarette addicts). 

The menu was a decent offering. OK for me as I eat fish, though a vegan would struggle. I ordered salmon fish cakes, which were very nice, and were presented beautifully, though came with chips, which I hadn't ordered, and were not mentioned on the menu. I'd prefer not to have chips with everything! If they wish to bulk out the dish, then some fresh wholemeal bread would have been more welcome, or a little rice or cous cous. Just a bit more imagination. And, at the least, let people know what they are getting so they can ask for it to be left off. Once given, the temptation to eat it can take over. 

Anyway. Nice place. But as there is no cask beer, and they allow smokers everywhere, we won't be back. 

Date: April 2021   Score: 5 

Interior ambience in 2019

Slightly smelly and run down place. No food during the day. One cask pump, Ubu, was not available. Cards need a minimum £5 spend. Not impressive. I suggest the Blue Keys Hotel round the corner (now closed).



Date: Sept 2019.  Score: 3

51 Archers Road
Southampton
SO15 2NF

 
Open: Noon to 11pm

Food: Website says breakfast, lunch and dinner, but when I visited the barman said only in the evening. Update: As of April 2021, pub serves food from 12 noon onwards. There are plans to provide breakfasts later in the year. 

Owner: Enterprise Inns (this may have changed). Enterprise were taken over by Stonegate in 2020. Winston Hotel is not listed on the Stonegate website. 

Children: Daytime, yes


* Winston Hotel
* TripAdvisor
* BITE

***

Stonegate / Enterprise

The Bistro (previously Cove; Waterfront Bar), Shamrock Quay, Northam

Consulting my PubStops map and WhatPub, I noticed that I had missed a bar on Shamrock Quay. Indeed, I had missed out on Shamrock Quay completely - I had never been there. 

The outside when called The Cove

So, picking up Myles for our weekly pub lunch, we headed out to Shamrock Quay.  Useful, because Myles needed to pick up a couple of things from the chandlers, and while we were there he also got some fresh fish from the excellent fishmongers.  The quay is a cool place, with a nice view of the Itchen river, though it's in a slightly isolated and unprepossessing location, tucked away quite hidden in Northam. 

View from the quay

I had been slightly concerned from recent reviews that the place might not be open. And, sure enough, it's closed, with "To Let" signs in the windows.

Interior (when it reopens)

The place is being advertised for sale at £125,000 - which seems quite reasonable considering its condition and location, though that is for a 20 year lease which costs £33,000 a year. When it was open it was reviewed by the very confident SouthamptonGirl, Elisha Jade, who manages to blag free meals for herself and her family in return for glowing reviews.

Ellisha Jade, the SouthamptonGirl.
 She loves herself! 

I hope someone does buy it and continue it as a bar. Shamrock Quay is a decent location to visit.

Date: Sept 2019

Myles with his Guinness - my two beers waiting for me on the table

Having read in the Daily Echo that the bar, now named The Bistro, had opened, Myles and I ventured out to Shamrock Quay once again. Success! The place is open, and while it has yet to bed in and generate a lunch-time crowd to fill out the space, we found it a charming venue with delightful food and friendly, attentive service. I had mussels with bread for under £8 and found it very tasty, filling, and excellent value. I was also pleased that there were two beers on offer, Shed Head and Angelo, that I'd not come across before.

We were both impressed with the venue and the food, and are highly likely to come back.

Date: Nov 2019   Score: 8


Unit 2, Shamrock Quay, 
William Street
SO14 5QL

***

* Bistro at Shamrock Quay
* WhatPub
* TheSouthamptonGirl  (paid review)
* TripAdvisor

Pubs in Oxford Street, Southampton

Oxford Street is one of Southampton's main evening destination areas, with an attractive pedestrianised section of pubs, bars, restaurants and eateries which spill out onto the pavement, giving the place a Continental feel, particularly on warm summer evenings.

The immediate area started being developed piecemeal in the early 1800s on agricultural fields belonging to Queens College, Oxford, from where it gets its name. Development stepped up when the railway arrived in 1840, and the port expanded, and by the turn of the century the street had been fully developed with the buildings we know today, and it was a prosperous area associated with  shipping and transport, containing a number of fine hotels. With the closure of the station, and the shift of shipping to other parts of Southampton, the area's fortunes declined, and a number of hotels closed. Bomb damage, traffic management, and some redevelopment of the area, particularly in the west of Oxford Street  and surrounding streets, changed the character slightly, but the closing off of Oxford Street and Latimer Street to through traffic created an attractive area for restaurants and bars to put out tables on the pavement.

Flying Dutchman

 

The London Hotel

Simons at Oxford

The Grapes

Caskaway

The White Star Tavern

* OxfordStreetSouthampton


History
* Step back in time / Daily Echo
* Sotonopedia
* BHO - Queens College
* Conservation Area Report
* Queens College - History
* Historic England - Southampton
* Heritage

***

Pubstops of Southampton

Santo Lounge, Shirley

Lot of similarity between this place and the Maritimo Lounge on Ocean Village, except this is smaller. I prefer Maritimo because of the location and the space, but I am impressed with this Shirley Road Santo Lounge. Family friendly and veggie friendly with a cool vibe, buzzing atmosphere, and loads of natural light. If they were more adventurous with the beers, and offered comfy casual seating this would be an awesome venue.

They offer the Loungers Cruiser IPA made by Bristol Beer Factory, same as Maritimo. There are eight beer taps in all.


Date: Sept 2019.  Score 7 1/2

429 Shirley Road
Shirley
SO15 3JF

Open 9am to 11pm
Food 9 am to 10pm 


* WhatPub 
* Santo Lounge 
* TripAdvisor 

• Pubs in Shirley

Rio's (formerly Verde), Shirley

Newish corner location bar on Shirley high street. Bare wood and tiles create a funky modern look. No casks, but eight taps serve a selection of beers, including Maltsmith IPA and Beaver Gamma Ray.

Quite a laid back place during the day. Soft music playing, all doors folded back with a summery breeze blowing in, bringing in the aroma of curry from a restaurant up the street. OK place. My half cost over £3, and there's no food, and nothing special in terms of the beer, so not somewhere in likely to return to, but a place I enjoyed visiting. Friendly staff.

Date: Sept 2019. Score: 4


289 Shirley Road
Southampton
SO15 3HT

Open Mon-Sun Noon to 11/Midnight 

* Rio's Bar 
* WhatPub 

• Pubs in Shirley

Marco's (formerly Simons at Oxford), Oxford Street

A bar and restaurant in popular and trendy Oxford Street, where eating and drinking while sitting at tables in Continental style on the pavement in the evening is the cool thing to do. 

Calm interior

Though a restaurant, there is a bar area that serves just drinks. Often has live music at the bar. It is popular to sit outside on the pavement.

The lads who lunch descended on Simons the week they reopen after lockdown. We sit outside, as that is the tradition at Simons. The seating is thoughtfully arranged into smoking and non-smoking sections. Plus points for that. We ask about the beers, but are given names of a handful of boring lagers. The best they can offer is cold Guinness. So be it.

The menu is quite inviting - one of the best I have seen in a restaurant since lockdown. Some places can manage it, while others are still struggling - well done to Simons for making the "new normal" as close to the old normal as possible.

Guinness and moules. Cheers! 

Myles has the soup of the day, while I have the moules in a particularly creamy sauce. I'm not given fresh bread - I have lightly scorched toast. First time I've had toast with moules, but it works OK. I would have preferred fresh bread, but the toast is a reasonable alternative. I am quibbling, because I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch, including the toast and the Guinness. But I know I would have enjoyed it better with a decent ale and some fresh bread. So be it.

I like the scheme for the toilet where you take an engaged card and leave it on the toilet door. Best scheme I have seen so far. All in all I enjoyed the place. Good food, attentive service, and a pleasant atmosphere. Our lunch choices were from the starter menu, which was just the right size for us, and the whole came to just over £20. This was my first visit. I enjoyed it, and would be happy to come back.



The place is both bar and restaurant, so customers are welcome to sit and just have drinks - though the selection is very limited, so for drinks best go to another place in Oxford Street. 

Date: July 2020    Score: 7 

  

By April 2022 the name had changed to Marco's. The old website redirects (eventually) to the new one,  so it is unclear if this is just a rebranding or a change of ownership.  All previous reviews on TripAdvisor have been deleted on request from Marco's. 

Date: Sept 2022  Score: N/A 

35-36 Oxford Street

Southampton
SO14 3DS

Open Tues-Sun Noon to 11pm 

 

* Marco's  

* Facebook 

* Simons

* Trip Advisor

* WhatPub

Pubs in Oxford Street

The Joiners, St Marys

Beers: Roadie and Whitstable Bay.