I did the Butser Hill Challenge in 2017 with my niece's partner, Martin, and we had lunch afterwards in the Wetherspoon in Petersfield. I thought that the town looked interesting, so a few days later stopped for a little pub crawl after dropping off the girls at Gatwick airport.
I visited the
Red Lion (Wetherspoon), The Townhouse (modern), Charles St. Tap (craft bar), The Old Drum (gastro), and Square Brewers (Fullers). The Fullers pub was the most traditional, while the Wetherspoon offered the best value, but was also the most popular so there was a long queue at the bar. Fullers competes well with Wetherspoon, offering good value food and a good number of cask beers (five), though Wetherspoon has a greater range of breweries and brands to choose from.
We loved the building. It has been a pub since the 1600s, and in the modernisation Wetherspoons have retained significant character, creating a large and interesting space with cosy nooks and crannies scattered around fireplaces. Sadly, the bar area is small, so on busy days there are long queues, especially for food. And the beer selection is fairly limited for a Wetherspoon pub.
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| Beer selection and sample tray |
The whole building
is Grade II listed, from the small attached building, known as The Tap, in Heath Road, which is the oldest part, and is the original pub, through the corner location main building, to the more recent (early 1800s) and larger building by the car park, which has the upper floor bay window.
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The Luker brewery and Petersfield's almshouse on the site of
the Red Lion's car park. |
Where the pub car park is, there used to be
the town's almshouse, and also
Luker's brewery. The brewery was taken over by Strong's of Romsey in 1934, who transferred the brewery operation to their own brewery. The
building burned down the same year, and the remains were then demolished.
This and the Square Brewery pub are possibly the two best pubs in Petersfield. I think I like the Square Brewery slightly more. It's interesting that both have historic associations with Petersfield's long gone breweries.
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| Townhouse ambiance |
Attractive bistro style cafe/bar serving local craft beer. I really liked the ambiance of the place, and that it has a selection of interesting local beers. Seating is mixed - there are high tables and stools, coffee tables, and standard cafe tables. I found it pleasant to sit in the window and gaze out at Petersfield passing by. The window is a bit of a sun trap, however, and I had to reluctantly move further into the cafe to get some shade.
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| Townhouse beer selection |
Service is relaxed and friendly. I ordered a soup of the day (veggie) and bread for around £7. The bread was very nice - it was grilled, but sadly the soup was watery and inedible. I was hoping a member of staff would ask me if everything was OK so I could mention to them that the soup was watery, but that doesn't seem to be their style. I would expect there had been mistake in making the soup, but rather than going up to the bar and making a complaint, and then working through the alternatives with them, I preferred to simply leave it. The Square Brewery were doing a veggie soup and bread for £5.
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| Charles Street Tap |
This craft beer bar and kitchen looks and sounds promising, but they present difficulties with their beer dispense system, as the taps are behind the counter, which makes it really hard to see what's on offer. They have a list but that is on a wall behind the bar, and is also small, so I had to stand in front of it to read it. And when I did I was disappointed at how few beers were really "craft". Most beers were simply keg beers from the big breweries, with some beers from smaller traditional breweries who would not think of themselves as being part of the modern American style craft beer movement which is about using off the shelf lab yeast, and filtering and force carbonating for stability. Flack Manor beers were on offer, and while they are small and young, they are a proper traditional brewery.
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| The Tap range |
I wasn't impressed with this place. I would place it bottom of the pubs I visited in Petersfield. It's probably popular with students and trendy types. It is the antithesis of Fuller's Square Brewery. I could imagine that some students would find the Square Brewery too old fashioned.
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| The Old Drum |
The Old Drum looked very promising on the outside. A traditional looking old pub that's been around for hundreds of years. On going inside I can see and feel that it's been refurbished into a modern gastro pub. Or, rather, one half is a restaurant, and the other half still retains some awareness of being a pub, though feels more like a modern bar.
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| Ambiance in the Old Drum |
There were four cask beers on offer, plus a cider, so not a bad selection. I had the
Andwell 5 Little Fishes, a malty beer.
The bar area is clean and attractive, and this is the place you'd bring your partner for a drink or meal, but you wouldn't come here with your mates for an evening session.
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| Plaque on the Old Drum |
Oh well, we shouldn't let truth get in the way of a good plaque. Curious, I looked up H. G. Wells. He never lived in Petersfield. His mother was a house maid at a country house 10 miles away, and he went to stay with her briefly when he was 13. He was later a student then a teacher at Midhurst School, about 20 miles away, and then didn't return to the area for the rest of his life, living and writing mainly in London.
I see no scholarly account that puts Wells in that pub (or even the town - though Wells mentions Petersfield Station in his own writings in his account of when his mother was dishonourably discharged from her duties in the country house, and caught the train there), but I see the story that he "regularly dined and wrote" there all over the place - people simply copying the story without bothering to check the facts.
My most likely explanation is that his father (who lived and worked in the area as a gardener long before H. G. was born) might have done some gardening for the pub, and the story got tangled over time. The closest pub connection I can find in the area is that while he was a student teacher at Midhurst School, he lodged next door to the Angel Inn in Midhurst.
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| Square Brewery, a Fullers pub |
The Square Brewery was my last stop. Bang in the middle of the town, with a view over the square, this is a proper traditional pub serving five cask beers and good value food in a characterful environment. I liked it a lot.
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| Five pumps (only four showing) |
I had the
Red Fox, which was served a little too cold for my taste, not allowing the malt to come through, but was an acceptable Autumn ale.
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| Ambiance in the Square Brewery |
There is a pleasant, laid back and welcoming atmosphere in this well run pub. I have been looking into the history, and Gales Brewery (which Fullers bought in 2006) took over the Week's Brewery, who owned and brewed at The Square Brewery, which either served as its brewery tap or it was a brewpub,
in 1907, closing down the brewery operation. The brewery had been in operation since
at least 1739, when it was owned by the Holland family.
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