Chichester - for the day

We will take a break from cruising for a while, (hooray, I hear you say), as I’m sure some of you are fed up with reading about the exploits of Mrs PBT’s and I as we sailed around the Mediterranean. There will be a few more posts to come, but at a future time that’s still to be decided. With plenty happening on the local pub scene, as well as the home and domestic front, it’s time to get stuck in an find out what’s occurring in “Sunny Tunny” and places further afield.

First up is last Friday’s jaunt to Chichester, county town of West Sussex, and unsung standard bearer for an attractive English town, and in case you weren’t aware, some cracking, but unsung pubs as well. I journeyed there, by train, with son Matthew who, I’m sure won’t mind my saying, is a little fed up at the moment. I won’t go into the reasons for his malaise, even though they’re nothing serious, but if you bump into me, I might tell you privately.

We took the cross-country rail route – the one which avoids London, thereby saving ourselves a staggering £31.40 each (I saved even more by using my Senior Railcard). The journey time was 20 minutes quicker too, than travelling via the capital, so why would you not opt for the scenic route? The latter involves a 30-minute journey from Tonbridge to Redhill – a cross-county line that opens up all sorts of possibilities, which I took full advantage of during my various walks along the North Downs Way.

A change of train at Redhill, followed by a second change at either Gatwick or Three Bridges, will see you arriving in Chichester, just over two hours after leaving Tonbridge, and in addition you will traverse some very pleasant countryside, as the line follows the gap in the South Downs, made by the River Arun between Amberley and Arundel. The train then picks up the south coast line that runs all the way from Brighton to Portsmouth and Southampton.

As far as I remember, this was my first visit to Chichester itself, although I have driven around the city a few times, most recently four years ago on a journey to and from Southampton, for our first cruise. We arrived in the city (and it is really quite a small city), shortly before midday, after a journey past waterlogged fields and swollen rivers, but thanks to the foresight of the Victorian engineers who constructed the various embankments and bridges that raised the line above the surrounding floodplain, we reached Chichester with dry feet!

It was a short, 10-minute walk from the station and into the city centre, which follows the original medieval plan of four roads, converging on a central radius, and thoughtfully named after the four points of the compass. I’d taken the trouble to draw up a rough list of pubs to visit, based on what I found on What Pub. It wasn’t definitive, and there may well have been better pubs, but we visited four, and with one possible exception, they were all good, and helped provide us with a snapshot of what Chichester has to offer.

First up was the Fountain, on South Street, a rambling Hall & Woodhouse (Badger) outlet that first opened as a pub in 1798. The pub has two bars, plus a restaurant area at the rear of the building. Arriving just after midday, we found the place quiet, although it wasn’t long before a handful of other customers turned up. The bar staff were busy removing decorations left over from Halloween, and an advert on the bar announced the live music acts lined up for both Friday and Saturday evenings.

Two hand-pumped ales were on offer – Badger Best and Tanglefoot. Given the relatively early hour, I opted for the former, finding this 3.7% bitter a refreshing blend of malt and hops. It's ages since I last drank a pint of draught Badger beer, and even longer since I set foot in a Hall & Woodhouse pub. Despite the above remark, a beer with a relatively low gravity, was a good one to kick off with, and with the Fountain providing a good welcome, it was a good place to begin our walkabout of Chichester’s pubs.

We continued in a northerly direction along South St towards the Chichester Cross, an ornate, stone market cross in the centre of the city, standing at the intersection of the four principal streets. On the way, we stopped for a brief look around the grounds of Chichester’s attractive-looking cathedral, and later in the day we took a look inside the building as well. I called in briefly at the local Nationwide branch, and afterwards, Matthew wanted visit the Chichester branch of his employer, Robert Dyas. We were now in the pedestrianised section of North Street, flanked by a number of attractive and imposing buildings, one of which was the George & Dragon Inn.

Marked on my list as a possible candidate for lunch, the young barman unfortunately blotted his copybook, as far as I was concerned, when his attempt at humour fell flat on its face. “Shots is it lads?” was his welcoming remark. My reply about us not looking like the type of people who drink shots (hand on heart, I’ve never drank a shot in my life), was probably said with a gruffer voice than I intended but was still sufficient to damage any chance of rapport between us.

Unlike the Fountain, the George was still full-on Halloween in its choice of décor, with a considerable amount of effort being made to achieve the desired effect. On the minus side, it was pretty dead inside and certainly not conducive to sending much time in. Adnam’s Ghost Ship and Dark Star Hophead were the cask offerings and I opted for the latter. Ghost Ship is far too citrussy for my liking, and I much prefer Adnam’s more traditional beers, such as Southwold, Broadside and, when it’s in season, the brewery’s excellent Old Ale. The Hophead, on the other hand, was quite acceptable, with no discernible difference in taste, following the closure of the Partridge Green site.

Moving swiftly on, it really was time for some food now, so we diverted off from North Street and took a walk past Priory Park, to St Martin’s Street, where the historic Hole in the Wall pub is situated.  This 17^th Century former debtors prison is owned by Greene King but is leased to and operated by the Big Smoke Brewing Company of Esher. It therefore offers one of the best choices of beer in Chichester. It appeared to be one of the most popular pubs in the city too and given the number of people and lack of available tables, I enquired at the bar about the availability of food before ordering our beers.

With commendable honesty, the bar staff apologised, saying they’d had a sudden influx of customers and informed me there was currently a 40-minute wait for food. Being hungry by now, Matthew and I said that we’d find somewhere else to eat, although we would be back, later on.  We made tracks for the Chichester Inn, a free house situated at the far end of West Street. On the way we passed the entrance to the city’s cathedral, but slightly concerned that the pub we were making for might have stopped serving food, we hurried on by.

We needn’t have worried, as the barman said there was still 30 minutes before the kitchen closed. Nevertheless, we placed our orders as soon as our drinks had been poured. I opted for sausage and mash, whilst Matthew went for scampi. Drink wise, I chose Taylor’s Landlord, with Matt going for Kronenbourg.  The Chichester itself is a two-bar pub with the lounge at the front of the building, and a much larger public bar to the rear. In common with many pubs in the city, the Chichester Inn hosts regular live music sessions.

We based ourselves in the lounge, at the rear, where there was a group of workers enjoying a Friday afternoon drink, after clocking off at the end of the week. Our food soon arrived, and we both go stuck in to our respective meals. My three sausages were meaty and herbal as well, and the mash was nice and buttery, as described. The "seasonal vegetables" though, consisted solely of frozen peas, and minted ones at that. Whoever thought minted peas were a good idea wants shooting, as whilst I’m partial to a dollop or two of mint sauce with roast lamb, adding mint to peas doesn’t work for me, so quite a few marks deducted there, I’m afraid!

The afternoon was getting on, and I was still determined to give the Hole in the Wall another try. We made tracks back into the city centre, but not before stopping to make a brief visit to the cathedral, where we were able to experience the impressive interior. I should qualify that by saying, I found the cathedral nave, and choir stalls impressive, but I’m not sure about my son!

The hordes of hungry diners had vanished from the Hole in the Wall, by the time of our return, and whilst we didn’t quite have the place to ourselves, it wasn’t far from it. To the far left of the bar was a beer wall with around 20 different keg taps, the majority of them Big Smoke brands, but it was cask I was after. A bank of four hand pumps to the right, was offering two Big Smoke cask beers, plus one from Dorking. They were both pale ales, so I went for the stronger of the two, the 4.2% Cosmic Dawn. Matthew tried the brewery’s Pilsner, and said it was good.

I must have been feeling overly fussy that day, as I found my beer thin, hazy, and totally dominated by citrus flavours – little wonder that I was craving something a lot more malt-driven at this point. It was not to be, as both of us decided to call it a day and make our way back to the station. It’s a shame that we mis-timed our visit to the Hole in the Wall, as the food offering, certainly on-line, looked the best of the four pubs we visited. The pub too was laid out well, and whilst there was little evidence of its past history, for my money it was the best hostelry we visited that day.

Chichester itself is a pleasant and well-ordered city, which has not turned its back on the past, whilst at the same time remaining an attractive and vibrant place. It’s well worth a two hour train ride as well, from West Kent, or as a stopping off point on a longer exploration of the Sussex-Hampshire coast.