Hope & Anchor — Restaurant in England

This pub is not only one of the last true remaining pubs in Dorset, but the whole of England. It is a proper drinkers pub with bags of character. Sue and Flash: the landlord and landlady are friendly, down to earth and run a traditional pub in a traditional way. Swedes of regular customers who look at it as a second home; a happy place where all are welcome and all are merry. Don’t come to this pub expecting the boring over-priced same old polished, characterless palmers pubs with terrible beer and little feeling of what a traditional pub should be. Come to The Hope And Anchor, a trip down memory lane where people who find what pubs used to and should be but very rarely are. I urge any tourist from the UK or overseas who want to find a real pub to visit here. Long live and love (which spellcheck appropriately swapped live to) The...

At first, the pub seemed quite old fashioned but nice on our first visit. The landlady seemed quite miserable, though, and the regulars were the sort of people that seemed a bit unused to seeing strangers in their pub. They looked over a lot and mumbled amongst themselves. The highlight of our second visit was a large woman standing at the bar gleefully telling the man standing next to her "she's only getting one!" When my partner was just getting a drink for me and not one for herself. She obviously thought I was out of earshot.

Weird all in all, but I'd probably go again even if it's just to make their lives more bit more interesting...

This used to be a wonderful locals' pub, tatty but full of atmosphere. The present tenants have exerted their own ideas, redecorated and torn the heart and soul from the place. During lockdown the landlord has being doing some DIY to make the pub Covid-19 safe. The result is a good screen around the bar, but ludicrous division of round tables with perspex, like wedges in a Trivial Pursuit game. Expensive drinks. You're better off at the local Wetherspoons or one of the other Bridport drinking dens, such as The George, the Rope Makers or the Pursuit...