Bonchurch Inn, Bonchurch

The Island's best preserved pub interior. The pub is approached down a short driveway where on the left is the old public bar entrance still with its fine etched glass. However, don’t be fooled, the doorway is not in use, customers nowadays have to pass through to an open courtyard. Immediately in front is the outside gents', and the original 1840s pub building that is now the kitchen and store. To the left, and the same building with the disused bar entrance, is the present pub, converted from the stable block and hayloft of the nearby Manor House in 1904. There are two rooms, a public bar, and a smaller saloon/family room.

The Public Bar is a long rectangular room and upon entering from the back door, the bar counter is immediately ahead. The counter and fittings appear to date from the early 20th Century, apart from the pot shelf which was added in 1995 for the filming of TV’s “The Detectives”, this would suggest they could be the original 1904 work. The walls are covered with wooden panelling with wider painted panels on the upper sections and narrower stained ones used for the lower dado. The bar front has a panelled front matching the dado and a large skirting around the base. The counter appears original and the aforementioned pot shelf does not look out of place. There is old shelving behind the bar, although some of this may have been modified to accommodate the casks from which the ale is drawn directly. Underfoot are bare floorboards and the ceiling has a number of rectangular sections, both may well be original.

The simple smaller saloon bar is entered from a separate outside door, has a (possibly) 1950’s era bar counter and an asymmetrical brick fireplace incorporating a small tapered tiled hood. This room also has panelled walls with dado and some of the shelving could well predate the (possibly) 1950’s refit, especially in what appears to be a blocked up window by the bar hatch.

One of the outbuildings in the courtyard has been demolished to create an outdoor patio, however, this was never part of the pub operation. In addition to the outside gents', the ladies' also have to venture across the courtyard when nature calls.