If there’s a pub with more history than this one, Phil Sampson would like to know where it is
SPICE ISLAND INN
This doesn’t happen all that often, but once in a while venue triumphs over menu. In my view that’s the case with the Spice Island Inn, a veritable history lesson of a pub located on Portsmouth Point at the eastern side of the harbour. Operated by Greene King, the Spice Island Inn rubs shoulders with another of Portsmouth’s historic waterfront watering holes, the Still & West, which is run by rival chain Fullers. That, we felt, boded well, for there’s nothing like a bit of competition to raise the bar.
Deciding which to take lunch in was a coin-toss moment, but it was the sandwich board outside the Spice Island Inn that sealed the deal. It outlined the pub’s heritage, and fascinating stuff it was too, informing us that as far back as the 1700s not one but three smugglers’ taverns occupied the site. They were known, amongst other names, as the Coal Exchange,the Jolly Sailor and the Union Tavern. Best of all, the sign told us, standing outside the gates of Old Portsmouth made the Point a lawless place, home to press gangs, murderers, brothels and lashings of drunkenness and bad behaviour. Bring it on, we thought, let’s go in…
The interior of the building is just as captivating as its exterior. In a nod to its heritage, various areas of the pub have their own names; downstairs there’s the Warrior Room and the Coal Exchange and upstairs there’s Smugglers and the Victory Room, where a placard on the wall begs the question of whether or not Admiral Lord Nelson drank here.
Its famously named rooms notwithstanding, the centrepiece of the Spice Island Inn, which incidentally takes its present-day name from the spices once stored there, is its bar. This is a magnificent woodpanelled affair which stands to greet visitors entering through the main door. We ordered a pint of Neck Oil apiece and, it being lunchtime, decided to restrict ourselves to a light bite. Expectations were high but in truth the menu was a little lacklustre, comprised largely of all the usual urban pub suspects – steak and ale pie, burgers, fish and chips etc, etc.
