Barley Mow, Portsmouth

Interwar pub with two surviving rooms plus a snug.  Counters in both bars are old, and wall panelling survives in the lounge and snug; parts of bar backs are more modern.Built 1924 for Brickwoods Brewery to replace an earlier tavern of the same name and designed by A E Cogswell, though to a design not generally associated with the architect (Cogswell's builds tending to have a more elaborate exterior than that of the Barley Mow). The pub retains two traditional bars and a snug area.

The public bar on the right is, curiously, in a single storey flat roof part of the building. The counter could be old and the dado panelling largely replaced by bare brick. The bar back fitting is modern. The original outside gents and ladies for the public bar remain.

The lounge bar on the left retains inter-war panelling all around the room, inter-war (or possibly 1950s) brick fireplace and an inter-war counter front (gantry and stained glass panels above are modern) The bar back fitting is a mixture of inter-war and modern work – most of the top section looks modern.

Off the lounge is a small snug with a wide gap access to it having lost its doors. It also retains inter-war panelled walls, there is an inter-war panelled bar front, but an inappropriate cast iron Victorian-style fireplace which presumably replaced an inter-war brick one. The original entrance to the snug was where the bookcase is now situated i.e. you accessed it directly off the lobby. Original Crittall metal window frames throughout.

Up to c.1980 there was a circular painting on the Mock Tudor-style ceiling showing ‘The Battle of Southsea’ painted by local artist A Bryant in 1874 which was moved from the original pub. In 1980 it was removed to the City Museum, but in 2025 the painting was returned to the pub following the commemoration of the battle on its 150th anniversary. It has also been established that it was painted by E. Dugan and not A. Bryant – see here.

The pub narrowly missed being damaged in 1941 when a 500 lb delayed action bomb landed in the pub cellar where customers had taken shelter. It was defused and the casing has been part of the pub’s inventory since and was lent to Portsmouth Museum for a war-time exhibition in 1981. Other information collected about the pub by licensee Judith Burr records Dr Arthur Conan Doyle giving evidence at a coroner’s inquest held at the original Barley Mow in the late 19th century.