The Albion Winchester (from Scene South)

The pub in question is the Albion, the unusually-shaped tiny corner bar at Winchester's busiest junction.

Like just about every other boozer in the land it once decided it had to diversify by offering meals.

But The Albion is so small that there was insufficient space for a proper kitchen and the experiment was dropped.

Instead the pub has gone back to the days when the heftiest meal you could have was two bags of pork scratchings.

Cue loud cheering from the stillnumerous army of real ale lovers who want their pubs without theme bar trappings or tables groaning with menus.

The pub is a refuge both for real ale lovers (It sells Taylors, Youngs and Hop Back, among others) and travellers either waiting to depart or just arriving at the railway station just a stone's throw up the hill. Its busiest time is early evening as commuters arrive back in Winchester from work.

Nearby pubs such as the Eagle Hotel and the South Western Arms closed in the 1990s. But the Albion was, whilst not exactly heaving early one lunchtime last week, had a surprisingly large number of customers.

Barmaid Caroline Bennett, who has worked at the pub since last July, said: "It's ever so friendly. It has a really good bunch of regulars.

This is a very small pub much improved since smoking was banned. The beer is always well kept and they are in the 2008 CAMRA Good Beer Guide for what I think is the first time. There are two regular beers, Timothy Taylor Landlord and Fullers London Pride. In addition there is a beer from the Pots Brewery at Cheriton plus another guest beer which this week is Quaff from Woods Brewery in Shropshire. There is always a great pint to be had at this pub.

Thanks for the compliments, the Albion is a great pub to run. We have a large and perfectly serviceable kitchen and I have spent many a happy hour in there preparing food for our cusotmers however not enough of them bought our food to make it profitable hence being forced to stop.

What are these links for?

If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.

At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.

Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.

Newsquest
Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy © Copyright 2001-2008 Newsquest Media Group A Gannett Company
This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network