7th visit of the outing: A return visit to the Jolly Fisherman as those on the coach party were picking their coach up opposite on the seafront. I managed to get there before it got really busy with the party assembling in here. The same beers on as in earlier in the day but now a different barman for this early evening visit and with prompt service due to my careful timing to get here ahead of some thirty in total who were then on their coach to London after their own visit here. Good banter with a chap from New Cross on the coach outing but not the one referenced to who used to work at Pearce Signs in that locality making Toby Ale hanging signs. They all seemed to manage to squeeze in for a last one. After my visit here, it was back to the same café but this time for their plaice and chips and a mug of tea before my slow saunter back to the station with my four-legged companion with the waggy tail.

1st visit of the outing: The size of a micropub and which it is now classed as and situated in the Old Town of Hastings overlooking the seafront, a warm welcome from the barman on this, my first ever visit as I recall and 3 real ales on, a mild, a bitter and a pale. Church pew-like bench seating and a high table to one side of the bar and adorned with framed old photographs of fishermen with their nets, bringing in their catch. A mix of wooden panelling and bare brick looking very much the part. This 18th-century building constructed in 1769 lends itself very well to this current micropub venture which started in 2016. It originally stood right on the quayside before the seafront road was put in place. The premises were first licensed as a public house in 1834 under its first landlord. By the 1840s, the landlord leased a section of the stone beach opposite, called the Stade, to run a traditional rope and net shop for fishing customers. In 1954, the adjacent London Trader beer house successfully had its full pub licence transferred from the Jolly Fisherman to themselves but it stayed open for five more years as the headquarters for the famous Hastings Winkle Club before finally closing its doors as a pub in 1959. For 57 years it was repurposed for various commercial uses, including a second-hand antique shop in the 1980s, a tea room, a bed & breakfast, and a pie-and-mash shop. On this first visit of the day for me someone came in seeking pie and mash and were disappointed. But I was not in the least disappointed as a couple of wonderful halves followed a café breakfast overlooking the old fishermen’s huts. It was quiet for my early afternoon arrival with just one or two others in. It would not take many to fill the place. Nicely restored with a predominantly olde worlde wooden look about the place.

My first visit here. Music from small speakers dotted about the place spoiled the micropub style atmosphere here for me, especially as although I do like Hendrix I don't want to have to listen with tinny speakers and poor acoustics preventing both enjoyment of the beer and the sounds. It was nice to see Toad in the Hole here. There were three cask ales on offer at the time of my visit.

A very likeable little pub. It now seems always to have three cask beers alongside beer from other formats.

A lunchtime visit after a rather bracing walk along the front. Good to see a couple of cask beers available at this very nice little pub.

Today is Hastings Pirate Day and timbers are being shivered all over town. Hastings does this kind of thing really well and it is a whole lot more fun than it sounds. But even pirates need to stop for a pint and I pop in to this very pleasant pub for one at around noon.