Photos of the Jolly Sailor

If you haven't yet, please sign our online Jolly Sailor Preservation Petition

Click here to go to our main campaign page

The Jolly Sailor, Old Bursledon, is located on the banks of the River Hamble. It was built in 1713, has been a pub since 1845 and is a Grade II Listed building.

The following photos show some of the pub's unique features that will be lost if the proposed plans are allowed to go ahead. We are campaigning to save these. You can click each photo below to see a bigger image. Warning: These images are 2400x1800 and are approximately 700kB each.

When you enter the Jolly Sailor, you are welcomed by the cosy back bar area. The traditional bar is ahead of you, and has many unique features.

If the changes are allowed to take place, this lovely welcoming view will be replaced by a corridor as wide as the current bar. All you'll get to see is the backs of people's heads queuing / standing at the new bar that will be on the left-hand side.

This photo shows the unique fireplace that, we believe, is the original from when the building was built in 1713. Following a highly successful first stage of our campaign, this fire will be kept burning. Hall & Woodhouse have modified their plans in order that a new bar will not be built in front of this beautiful fireplace.

You can also see the stone floor in front of the fire. This stone floor covers the entire back bar area. Following the highly successful first stage of our campaign, none of this floor will be taken up to build the new bar - instead, Hall & Woodhouse plans to build the new bar on a suspended floor and extend the stone floor area, using matching stones.

However, these responses to our initial campaign are merely window-dressing. Hall & Woodhouse still intend to rip out the two existing bars, which will utterly ruin this two-bar pub. They haven't even justified why these changes are needed - to put it quite simply, these changes are not needed and we're again campaigning to have their destructive plans stopped.

The riverside bar area will also change dramatically. The bar will be ripped out, removing the key feature of the room. If the original plans were correct in saying that the room will become a restaurant area, the round tables are likely to be replaced by dining tables. With the bar removed, no longer will the regulars be able to sit at the bar putting the world to rights over a beer or two! We believe that removing the bar from this room will change its character irreparably. The new plans fail to show the existing extractor fan - is this a sign that this room is soon to become more friendly to those eating?

Since submitting the revised plans in February 2003, there have already been changes in the pub. A lovely old wooden settle has been removed from the riverside bar area - Apparently it has been blocking out light for the last however-many years. Items of interior decor have also been slowly disappearing. It would seem that Hall & Woodhouse are intent upon wrecking the character of the Jolly Sailor without waiting to see if their application for listed building consent to alter the interior is approved.