I’m pleased to note that Ross and I managed to visit every pub in Christchurch (the Dorset one, not the New Zealand one) so that means a heap of blog posts.
Formerly known as the Ship Inn, the venue has a long history, the core of the building is thought to date to around 1688, with a Victorian facade on the front. Christchurch was very much a smuggling town in the eighteenth century, so perhaps there was a fair amount of that going on in the pub. The word ‘inn’ indicates that there was accommodation, and newspapers from the 1850s show that there was a large room upstairs which could be used for meetings. There was a recent planning permission change request and the owners said that the interior had been so knocked about that there was a limited amount of original layout left.
The Ship is more of a restaurant than a bar, but they do allow drinkers in and we were made to feel welcome during our visit.
The Doom Bar had run out, although I didn’t personally consider that as any great loss, so they had two beers from Timothy Taylor’s on.
We sat at the bar and I went for a Golden Best and I was pleased to discover that I haven’t had it before. It was well-kept, light. fluffy and sweet, so that met my expectations, although there was nothing overly notable about it.
The venue appears to have recently been taken over by new owners and the reviews seem positive. The menu is mostly traditional pub food, but it seems like an effort has been made to source locally and the presentation looks decent.
Looking at old photos of the pub, it was a gastropub and jazz bar fifteen years ago, so the theme of a food led venue isn’t something new. The last owners had an Asian themed menu, although the new owners seemed to have stepped back from this and are aiming for traditional meals served in what I think is designed to be a contemporary manner. Anyway, it was welcoming, clean, friendly and I got to try a beer that I hadn’t had before.