King’s Lynn Community Cinema Club, Southwold Adnams pubs, Red Lion, Sole Bay and Lord Nelson, Greene King – Bar Man

Bar Man column by Jeff Hoyle, July 28

My first visit to Southwold was sometime in the mid-80s. Me and Cathy were staying over the May bank holiday weekend with Pete in Hitchin, all former students at Hull, now making our way in the real world.

Pete was working for a car dealer and he borrowed a very nice Mercedes for the weekend from work. While Cathy and I stretched out in the spacious rear seats, he donned a blazer with admiral’s stripes and a gift shop captain’s hat and drove us to the coast.

I remember dropping in at the Victoria in Earl Soham, an excellent home brew pub, on the way, and visiting the White Hart at Aldeburgh before reaching Southwold. We were there because of the reputation of Adnams beer. I had probably tried it before, but when there was no internet and guest beers were a rarity, it would not have been very often.

I don’t recall which pub we chose, but I do remember it being wonderful. Later, in the early years of this century we were annual visitors. A friend knew someone who owned one of the large houses on the front, and we had cheap rates at the beginning of the season.

Up to a dozen of us would wander round the town, maybe do a tour of the brewery, or walk down to the harbour before checking out if the Adnams was still on form.

Invariably, it was, but my abiding memory is of a February day with wind from the east. I have been to Antarctica and the high Arctic, but have never felt as cold as that evening.

This time our trip was cinema based. Southwold boasts the Electric Picture Palace, a tiny cinema that tries to recreate the experience of visiting the cinema 50 years ago. From the front of house manager in his dinner jacket to the vintage Pearl and Dean adverts during the break when the usherettes serve the ice cream, this is what it used to be like.

There is even a ‘Tiny Wurlitzer’ which rises from the stage and clips from the Coronation as the National Anthem played at the end. We were there with the Lynn Community Cinema Club, but we invited a couple of friends from nearby Beccles along with a German student who was a guest of theirs. Goodness knows what she made of the experience.

Great though that was, it would not be Southwold without Adnams pubs, so we decided to stay for the weekend and reacquaint ourselves with the best of them.

The three classics, the Red Lion, Sole Bay and Lord Nelson were just as I remember, though I did opt for the fish and chips in the Red Lion rather than the pizza franchise in the Nelson.

The two smart hotels, the Swan and the Crown are in fine fettle and the beer was great everywhere. With the large new Adnams shop and café and expansion of their operations, perhaps the town is becoming over reliant on one firm, while the abundance of holiday lets and second homes leaves it in danger of becoming more of a theme park than a real working town.

On the other hand, I remember spending the Monday of that far away bank holiday weekend in Furneux Pelham drinking Rayment’s beer, just before the owners, Greene King, closed the brewery.

Perhaps the landlord knew the writing was on the wall when he locked the door and drew the curtains as we enjoyed a pleasant but illegal afternoon. Rayment’s has long gone; it may have its faults, but Adnams is still here and still brewing great beer.