The Lemon Fool

Mrs Didds and i are visiting the theatre in Winchester on Saturday evening, but are taking the opportunity to have a small break in our campervan overnight and include Sunday. We only live an hour away in Wiltshire but never go to winchester so we are looking forward to it

So - looking for recommendations (including en route and in the general area not just downtown etc )for

* independent cafe (sunday breakfast?) and restaurants , preferably open early enough to also make the theatre for 1930 kick off. Or street food style options of course

* excellent real ale pubs (I have the GBG, but .. "know" .. the best pubs for ale don't always get into it )
* craft beer bars
* non obvious stuff "to do" - we have the NT handbook, there is the cathedral of course.

We have fairly eclectic tastes, so anything and everything will do

cheers

didds

We used to visit Winchester quite a lot before we moved to Devon a couple of years ago.

Winchester has a twice-monthly farmers' market on Sunday mornings in the town centre. It has a range of excellent stalls, including street food. It is also worth a visit just to see the local goods on sale. The next one is on the 24th of April, which I think, ties in with your visit. There are also lots if independent cafes if you want something more formal.

A short walk (200 yards) from the southern end of the tow centre brings you to the River Test, where you can walk along the river to the water meadows all the way to St Cross Hospital and Almshouses (they probably won't do you breakfast), then back into Winchester via Winchester College and past the cathedral.

Enjoy your visit.

Bminusrob wrote:A short walk (200 yards) from the southern end of the tow centre brings you to the River Test

tow=town?

and the River Itchen not Test ?

(just checking - I cant see the Test in Winchester on google maps)

didds wrote:

Bminusrob wrote:A short walk (200 yards) from the southern end of the tow centre brings you to the River Test

tow=town?

and the River Itchen not Test ?

(just checking - I cant see the Test in Winchester on google maps)

Note to self: Don't try to be helpful until you have finished breakfast.

Yes. southern end of town, in fact just past King Alfred's statue.

Yes. The River Itchen. The walk starts just opposite the National Trust Winchester City Mill.

Bminusrob wrote:Note to self: Don't try to be helpful until you have finished breakfast.

Yes. southern end of town, in fact just past King Alfred's statue.

Yes. The River Itchen. The walk starts just opposite the National Trust Winchester City Mill.

NP. looking forward to it and that exactly the sort of stuff we'd do

I live in Winchester, just opposite St Cross Hospital, I walk the dogs along the Itchen most days, I would indeed recommend the walk from the city centre to the Hospital, you could walk a few hundred yards further to watch the St Cross cricket team play too, if that's your thing, there should be a match on.

As for cafes, our current favourite is General Store in the Square, just by the cathedral, great coffee and cakes. The farmer's market if it is on is definitely also worth a visit.

You could also visit the Queen Inn on Kingsgate Road on the way back to town as an alternative to walking back along the river, it has it's own microbrewery with excellent beers.
https://www.thequeeninnwinchester.com/gallery.html

Kingsgate Rd takes you by Winchester College if you wish to see Rishi Sunak's alma mater. Further along nearer town is The Wykeham Arms which is also worth a visit for a swift one, although no craft stuff.

The Overdraft in Jewry Street about 200 yards from the theatre has an excellent range of craft beers.

For pre theatre food:
Bangkok Bistro for good Asian or Gurkha's Inn for Nepalese style curry, both very close to the theatre.
Opposite the cathedral, Three Joes for an excellent pizza
https://www.threejoes.co.uk/
or further away down the High Street Shoal do really excellent fish and chips https://www.shoal.uk.net/

Have a good weekend and please ask if you want any further information.

John

Great suggestions thus far - thanks

Trip report:

Cracking couple of days

Got to Winchester just after midday, parked the campervan in Worthy Lane car Park. Advance reading/research suggested that a 24 hour ticket was £7.30, and on arrival we found Sunday was free and thrown in so our ticket was actually good until MONDAY circa 1230 Other research had indicated there were no TROs in force to prevent sleeping there so we were happy to plan to stay in central Winchester (aka "W") and spend lots of money there.

We wandered down the high street and looked at the stalls in the craft/whatever market. Tried for lunch at Bento Box which looked interesting but the lack of much seating and general chaos sent us elsewhere sadly (sadly cos the food looked great)

We adjourned to Green's Bar and Kitchen for a sandwich and a quick drink, and Mrs Didds (MD) wanted to return to the market. My hip was playing up and i was in quite a lot of discomfort so I left her to it and went next door to Overdraft for some seriously crafty beer. Excellent! The food menu looked pretty good there - variations on burritos and tacos.

More wandering around and coffee/tea at Three Joes Pizza in the square by the cathedral, ten off to eat at Bangkok. We dont have a handy Thai restaurant near us at home so it was a real treat - lovely food and top service.

Thence to The theatre Royal for a brilliant performance of HMS Pinafore by Sascha Regan's all male company.

A quick sniffter back at Overdraft before heading off to bed in the van, parked up a corner of the car park.

We awoke at about 0710 to a fair bit of noise - to find a huge car boot was setting up around us! MD carefully drove us out of the way of the car boot with one miserable steward moaning about how we shouldn't be there and we were "lucky" we hadn't been moved on. I had checked the night before on top of my earlier research and nothing on any signs said no overnighting, and indeed you can but a 24 hour ticket to boot anyway. No signage either that car boots were there every Sunday - misery guts said "its every Sunday - everybody knows that". As MD said "not if you are from out of town. How would we be expected to know?". Misery guts had no answer. Tw4t. A stall holder at the car boot subsequently told us that people always stay over and a few weeks ago there had been travellers staying there and "nobody did a thing".

Anyway, we re-parked and wandered around the car boot. Quite a decent one. Into W for the sunday market where I got some biltong and goats cheese. Thence breakfast at the winchester orangery - blimey the portions were enormous. Good food and superlative service. Then to the Winchester watermill, a NT place where we timed it perfectly to see them start grinding flour via the mill. Then along the Itchen towards St Cross - where I bumped into a guitarist Ive performed with ! - and then to the Queen Inn. Sadly their micro brewery is out of action currently during a refurb but the ale offerings (despite being a Greene king [pub! Urgh!) were decent. An hour spent watching cricket at Winchester college then back into W and home.

We shall return.

Glad you had a good time in my neck of the woods. I always feel lucky to live here. Cracking day for it today.

LOL about the boot fair...I was there today at about 7.30. I noticed that a couple of cars were still parked from last night, sometimes happens that there is a camper there too. Yes the official guy is a bit of a jobsworth.

Shame about the microbrewery at the Queen, I thought it would be up and running by now but they usually have a good selection of local craft ales too...you don't have to drink the Greene King rubbish. Pleased you liked Overdraft, Three Joes and Bangkok. I'd forgotten about the Orangery, very nice place run by a friend of my daughter's .Try Shoal and General Stores next time.

John

redsturgeon wrote:LOL about the boot fair...I was there today at about 7.30. I noticed that a couple of cars were still parked from last night, sometimes happens that there is a camper there too. Yes the official guy is a bit of a jobsworth.

I had a sudden panic that it may have been YOU LOL.

He just seemed to be of the opinion that EVERYBODY shoud KNOW the car boot is there EVERY sunday. Wierd.

Shame about the microbrewery at the Queen, I thought it would be up and running by now but they usually have a good selection of local craft ales too...you don't have to drink the Greene King rubbish.

If it had only been GK I wouldn't have stopped. The offerings were very decent indeed. the guy explained to me that they were having issues securing the kit they needed for the upgrade - and on the board explaining it all it had a sign off

"#brexit"

whether that was an explanation for the kit delays, or an approbation of the B word I didn't ask!

didds wrote:

redsturgeon wrote:LOL about the boot fair...I was there today at about 7.30. I noticed that a couple of cars were still parked from last night, sometimes happens that there is a camper there too. Yes the official guy is a bit of a jobsworth.

I had a sudden panic that it may have been YOU LOL.

Damn, missed the chance of a great wind up there!

John

redsturgeon wrote:LOL about the boot fair...I was there today at about 7.30.

We probably walked past each other

didds

Sorry I'm rather late to the party, but I rarely visit this board. However, on the basis that you've said you will return to Winchester you might want to visit one of my favourite pubs, The Mayfly, in Fullerton, on the River Test.

I don't know where you live in Wiltshire, but there's a good chance you'll go to Winchester via Stockbridge, and Fullerton is just a couple of miles upstream.

I'm a trout fisherman, and as the Test is supposedly one of the best trout rivers in England I'm slightly biased, but even if you're not of the piscatorial persuasion it's in a lovely setting, and it has a large beer garden along the banks of the river - this was taken 10 days ago standing in the said beer garden ...

duly noted CK

we may check out if anybody swims in the Test in that area too - Im sure Roger Deakin did in his wonderful book "waterlog"

aha!
"Houghton
The River Test runs through Houghton, a small village in the Test Valley area of Hampshire, near Stockbridge.
The Clarendon Way intersects in Houghton crossing the River Test by three footbridges, the main one being 'Sheepbridge'.
It is here you will a wide ford ideal for paddling, surrounded by beautiful countryside.
Houghton, Stockbridge SO20 6EW"

Quite a few swimmers in the Itchen betwixt Winchester and Twyford.

These are chalk streams of which there are only about 200 in the world!

John