Life’s a Beach (House)...

I think this photo has a kind of surreal feel to it, like something out of the film Fantasia. It’s as if the bench seats are marching down to the sea.  Probably just me being weird again...

In no particular chronological order I thought I'd do a post on this previous visit to The Beach House at Milford on Sea.  It was a beautiful autumn day when Mrs GH and I had a pleasant Saturday lunchtime drive through the New Forest, now quiet again after the tourist season, to this Hall and Woodhouse pub.

The Beach House pub/hotel is a real beauty.  Hall and Woodhouse explain on their website, that it is a grade II listed Victorian mansion built in 1897, by one Alexander Siemens, as a seaside home called Westover Hall.  Checking with Wikipedia it turns out that this Siemens is the famous German electrical engineer, he retired to Westover Hall and died there in 1928.

The Beach House (image courtesy of Google maps street view)

This is not a GBG pub, (nor is any Hall and Woodhouse pub) but only because that famed cask ale preservation campaign group can't get their head round cask breathers (yet?).
The staff are friendly and helpful and the food is excellent.  If you have not yet tried an award winning Steak and Tanglefoot Pie you don't know what you're missing.
The cask ale is good too, though needless to say it is Hall and Woodhouse's own Badger ales on offer.  When we visited this was the line up....

Regulars Fursty Ferret and Best Bitter and seasonal Red Rye

Always a sucker for something different I opted for the seasonal Red Rye - a good choice and a lovely malty, gentle roast/rye flavour beer with not too much bitterness. I'd score it at least a good.

A cracking pint of Badger Red Rye and view of the Solent and Isle of Wight - nice...

From a table in the small rear conservatory we had a lovely sunny view of the gardens, Solent and Isle of Wight and we didn't care about the gentle tap, tap, tap of the builders repointing the rear facade and the gentle shower of brick and mortar dust writing past the window.  H&W had kindly warned patrons of the work on their website.
We did have a little explore of the pub.  It's the kind of place where exploring is irresistible, with lots of rooms heading off in every direction full of oak panelling, wooden staircases, old long case clocks and other period ephemera etc.  Unfortunately not having a blog in mind at the time I didn't take enough photos.  The bar is in the entrance hall area opposite the main staircase and there are 2 or 3 main rooms for dining plus the conservatory.  The multitude of separate rooms and spaces all helps to preserve the ageless calm and mystery of the place - even though the pub was very busy when we were there.
On the first floor we found a small sun lounge cleverly created from an original open balcony by glazing it in (the glazing is this side of the balcony railings in the photo below).  It was a real sun trap and there we found the pub cat Lancelot soaking up the autumn rays...

Stunning view of the Needles, but Lancelot has seen it all before and prefers to catch up on some beauty sleep in the sunshine, on his colour co-ordinated sofa.

It won't be long before we're back here again, to soak up the old world atmosphere of the mansion, enjoy the friendly service, good food and Badger real ale (my definition not CAMRAs).
I wonder if those garden benches will have reached the sea by then.....