Category: Christchurch

I like a blue plaque and Christchurch Local History Society has placed a fair number of these around the town. Bow House was built as a brewer’s house in the eighteenth century, it was then occupied by the taxidermist Edward Hart before becoming a building society in the twentieth century and it’s now a dentists.

It’s perhaps the period when it was occupied by Edward Hart (1847-1928) that is the more interesting time as he turned it into a museum of the things that he had stuffed. There’s plenty of information about him on the Hampshire Cultural Trust website and they mention:

“Edward worked at William’s [his father] new premises for several years, learning the art of taxidermy, until he opened his own business at 23 High Street (The Bow House).

As well as preparing animals and birds for local sportsmen, Edward started his own collection. Most of his specimens were taken between 1867 and 1897. In 1866, his collection was large enough to open a museum in ‘The Bow House’, which is now the Portman Building Society.

Hart’s Museum received many visitors, including Sir Robert and Lady Baden-Powell in March 1914. The building was described as ‘warm, well-lit and very clean, the ideal of a private museum, every part of which is crowded with rare and beautiful birds.’

The Public Natural History Museum for Bournemouth attempted to buy the collection to keep it in one piece, but that didn’t work out.

“After the death of John Hall, the collection was passed to Stowe School in Buckinghamshire where they remained until 1983. The collection was, by this time, in a sad state of neglect and staff at Leicester Museum took them on for conservation and safe storage. Unfortunately a number of cases were beyond repair and had to be disposed of. In the early 1980’s, Stowe School offered the collection for sale and they were purchased by the Horniman Museum, Leicester Museum and Hampshire County Council Museums Service (HCCMS). Twenty two cases were purchased by the latter and chosen, not only as fine examples of taxidermy, but also because the backgrounds show Christchurch at the time the birds were shot.”

The building is listed and this states:

“C18. Painted brick facade with dentilled eaves cornice. Tiled roof. 2 storeys and attic with a pedimented dormer. 2 bays each of 3 windows, unbarred sashes. Doorway with pilasters, broken scroll pediment and door of 6 fielded panels, the top 2 panels cut away and glazed.”

The Christchurch Brewery was located behind this house, but that history was all swept away in the 1970s when they wanted to build a lovely new car park. Looking at old maps, it’s not entirely clear that there was a great deal to preserve from this period and I’m not sure that the buildings were very notable.

During the weekend, Ross and I visited all of the pubs that were in Christchurch (or the central bit anyway) and there’s a fair variety of them available including food-led, loud, quiet, real ale led and craft beer led.

Dirty Gerties [less of a pub and more a function venue]

Railway, The [We visited here, but I’ve decided not to write about it]

Saxon Bar

Ship, The

Smugglers, The

Snug, The

Thomas Tripp

Ye Olde George

The only Good Beer Guide listed pub is the Saxon Bar and that has the widest range of craft beer alongside several real ales. This is a micro-pub and perhaps the best in terms of beer selection. The Snug is quieter but has several real ales available, there’s much more quirkiness here. The Thomas Tripp is louder and busier for those who like that kind of atmosphere, whilst the Ship is food-led although drinkers are very welcome. The Ye Olde George is more expensive but has a pleasant beer garden, whilst the Smugglers is a little further out and is more of a community pub.

I really like places that are quirky (well, generally as there are exceptions) and we went here on both evenings. This is more of a cafe bar than a pub, but it absolutely meets the requirements of the latter and it’s very well reviewed online.

They have cake, real ale and a range of beers in bottles.

Just for reference, here’s their breakfast menu.

And the lunch menu.

The real ale board and they were featuring a selection of beers from the Drop the Anchor brewery who are located in Hinton, which is a short distance away from Christchurch. I think it’s really positive that they’re supporting a local brewery and I noticed it too late, but they were offering flights as well (as in beer flights, they weren’t flying to Hinton).

My beer on the first evening was the Tucktonia from Drop the Anchor, which was a hoppy, tropical and quite floral little number. Ross had bottled lager.

My beer on the second evening was the Citralicious from Drop the Anchor, an ale with a citrusy edge, not entirely well rounded but a bit more rustic. Ross had bottled lager.

This is the sort of quiet and peaceful environment that I like, with a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. On the first evening one of the members of another group was telling me about the real ales he had tried and he noted that they were all hoppy. That was not an inaccurate statement, but he had clearly enjoyed his experience.

A design concept such as this is marvellous and it’s a great opportunity for the staff to pop anything old…. Although I’m sure that they’re carefully curated everything.

I really liked this venue, it was something a little different and the service was friendly and the surroundings intriguing. There was a wide range of real ales, they’ve made a proper effort here to do interesting things and I hope that’s rewarded with the number of customers for them as they deserve it.

Located around ten minutes walk from the centre of Christchurch, this is the Smugglers which reopened earlier in 2025. The pub has been an important part of the community for many years, previously known as the Smugglers Run and the Olde Starre Inn. It’s now run by the business partners who are behind the Thomas Tripp pub as well as some other enterprises in the town.

I couldn’t see any real ales, although I think that they’re usually sold, and the keg options didn’t look very interesting either. The service was though engaging, friendly and helpful, with the team member offering to bring the Guinness to the table when it was ready which I thought was kind.

I went for half a Guinness and Ross went, unsurprisingly, for a lager. The Guinness was served in an appropriate glass, it was at the appropriate chilled temperature and it tasted as I expected, so all was well.

We were heading for an Indian meal at this point, but here’s the food menu at the Smugglers. Those prices seem very reasonable to me, with plenty of choice available. There was a comfortable and inviting feel to the venue as well, I really quite liked it here.

There’s something of a community pub feel to the venue, there’s pool, darts and they also show a lot of live sports. I’m not sure that these are key drivers for me, but they’re important in a community pub that wants to attract a broader dynamic, so that all feels positive.

This rather beautiful building is Dirty Gerties Gin Parlour which is a venue that’s primarily open only for private events, but does have some general opening times when members of the public can visit. It’s a charming building and it’s thought to date from the thirteenth century, but is perhaps best known for being the town’s former court house.

There’s a plaque to the side of the door which mentions the history of the building. The listed building record adds:

“Late mediaeval timber framed building refaced in C18 and C19. L shaped. Thatched roof. Eastern cross wing refaced with roughcast. Street facade of 2 storeys with 1st floor jettied out. Gable end has elaborate carved bargeboards with pendant and an embattled beam below ornamented with a row of shields. 1st floor has casement window with dripstone above. Shop front below in similar C19 style. Western part of facade plastered and with plinth. 1 window, sashes with boxed frames and glazing bars. Eastern side facade has exposed, substantial, square panel timber framing. Court Leet was held here for some years after Court Hall was demolished in late C19.”

These were tea rooms before the current owners took over in 2018, although the premises do look like a pub from the outside. The venue themselves give some more history (something that I always think is a lovely thing to do):

“Dirty Gertie’s is situated within one of Christchurch’s oldest council properties with elements dating back to the 13th century. It was originally used as a private dwelling up until the 15th Century when it was purchased by the borough making it possibly Britain’s oldest council house.

After the purchase, the council used it as a residential property to house the towns mayor. When the neighbouring ‘’Courthouse’’ was made derelict in the 1800’s, the court leet began to meet in the back parlour room to appoint the towns mayor, constables, hayward and of course the towns ale-taster!

​In 1850, the building became a butchers shop, with evidence of the meat hooks still visible today in the back room and outside in the window frames. The butchers was owned by ‘Gert’ who unfortunately had a back lack of hygiene which earnt him the nickname locally as ‘Dirty Gert’.

The old jailhouse lockup is still situated in the back garden of the property and was used to house petty thieves back in the day.

It has also been a shoemakers and bookshop until 1944 when the production and selling of perfumes began, giving it the name ‘’The New Forest Perfumery’’.

​It was run as a Perfumery until 1996, when previous occupants decided to turn one of the rooms into a tea parlour and began its life as a tearooms until 2018 when Dirty Gertie’s was born.”

All really rather lovely. CAMRA note that alongside the spirits they sell, notably gin, there are also some keg beer options.

An Indian meal seems the most sensible option for the Saturday evening and this one was the best reviewed in Christchurch so we headed there. There’s the option of making an advance reservation on-line and I did this, although we probably didn’t need to. The restaurant was established in 1975, so it’s their fiftieth anniversary this year which is really quite impressive.

There was one large table already dining when we got there, but no other diners, although it got busier later on. As for the menu, these were very agreeable prices and I even opted for a starter as they were under £4.

The interior was clean and functional, I don’t see the need to overdo these things and it felt a sensible compromise to me.

I opted for mango lassi instead of beer, it was freshly made and tasted light and had the flavours of mango I hoped for. Ross wanted a lager and that’s handy as that’s the only beer choice that they had.

For under £4, I thought that this was a decent starter and I liked the presentation of the lemon press. The chicken pakora was a generous portion, the chicken was tender and the salad added a little something. The coating was perhaps just a little soggy in places, but the flavours were there.

I went for the chicken tikka jalfrezi with a peshwari naan and a side of lemon rice. The portion size for everything was generous, with large and tender pieces of chicken in the curry. The sauce had a depth of flavour, some actual chillies and spices so it didn’t feel drab. The rice was very lemony, but that seems to me to be the point of it. The peshwari naan was light and flavoursome, with the whole lot being at the appropriate hot temperature. The whole arrangement proved to be more than enough and I struggled to finish everything.

The service was informal, efficient and personable, so I felt welcome. I’d very much come here again if I was in the area, I liked the whole set-up. The pint of mango lassi, starter, curry, rice, naan and tip came a total of £24 each. They only gave us one After Eight mint with the bill, so Ross and I agreed that I’d eat it. I agreed the most.

Anyway, all rather lovely.

Ducking Stool Walk reopened to the public in 2021 following some repairs completed to the boardwalk which leads to the newly restored ducking stool.

This is a nice recent piece of restoration and although it’s obviously all a modern replacement from around 1986, it’s located where they think a ducking stool used to be located. The River Avon used to be faster flowing here at this point, but it has become a little silted up since the medieval period and it’s also thought that there would have been a pond here to ensure the victim got properly wet. And the victim would have likely been a female who was found guilty of gossiping or similar. They’re also known as cucking stools, although there are different opinions on the origin of that word or whether it was just a corruption of the word ducking.

A sign that used to be here, but which has now disappeared (before vanishing in some mysterious modern day heist, possibly involving a collector of obscure public information boards) said:

“The earliest documented evidence for a ducking stool in Christchurch is in the Borough Records dating from the mid-14th century. In May 1350 a property deed mentioned a ‘Schulffyngstol, another dated September 1468 calls it a ‘Shylvyngstole’.”

It is probably for the best that the ducking stool isn’t actually usable because of the lack of water, otherwise I suspects local pesky youths might soon be posting “extreme historical re-enactments” on TikTok, complete with a healthy disregard for health and safety.

Neither Ross nor I really needed chips, but it felt sensible to have something local for lunch. We had strayed into the suburb of Somerford, which is around a twenty minute walk away from the centre of Christchurch.

The menu board and everything was clearly priced. I was tempted to get a pie, but since I didn’t really need chips I decided not to get something else that I didn’t really need. The service was polite and friendly, although I was slightly disappointed that they didn’t offer different sized portions of chips as I only wanted small.

Chips seem to usually be served in boxes now, which seems to me to be a great improvement. I struggled to hold these as they were so hot, although that might be more testament to my delicate skin. I prefer the small and crispy chips and one advantage of this packaging is that they fall to the bottom and so I got to enjoy those last. As for the chips, they were golden on the exterior and fluffy inside, tasting just as I was expecting.

I obviously finished all of the chips as I’m naturally quite greedy, as did Ross with his, but it wasn’t easy as the portion was generous. As mentioned, they had an enjoyable taste, aided by the generous amounts of salt and vinegar that I decided that I needed. Anyway, the online reviews are mostly positive, the service was friendly and I thought that I got reasonable value for money.