HISTORY

Our Iconic Building

In the 1960’s and 1970’s the property was two separate buildings. The larger part occupied by a café and sweet shop and the remainder by a pottery. In the mid‐seventies the two buildings were amalgamated into a pub & café on the ground floor with a small owner’s flat above. In 2021, the small owner’s flat and store rooms above were stripped out and the current owners converted it back into a beautiful new open-plan restaurant & bar space which has had a fantastic reception by locals, holidaymakers and tourists alike - it was fully booked almost every night from opening after the national lockdown on May 17th right through until the end of October half term and has since been further extended.

This landmark pub and restaurant has served the local community, holidaymakers and tourists for decades and is one of only two public houses in the parish of Nettlestone & Seaview.

History of Seaview & the Surrounding Areas
The Old Fort is steeped in history. Seaview was first mentioned in July 1545 when the French, in a naval attack on Portsmouth, landed near what is now The Old Fort on the Esplanade and routed defenders from a small emplacement at Fort Bank. Fast forward two hundred years, and a family with their 12 children, were the first recorded settlers in cottages just a short walk up the hill. 

The two villages of Seaview & Nettlestone were originally quite separate communities with Nettlestone being far older of the two. By 1850 the centre of Seaview was complete with the Conservation Area being introduced by the 1960’s.

Seaview expanded outwards quickly throughout the second half of the 19th century and was a thriving seaside resort by 1860. A “suspension” type bridge was built in 1881 and stood for 70 years welcoming visitors and day trippers right up to World War II - but it blew down during a violent storm on 29th December 1951. Further development continued quietly until the explosion of building in the 1960’s and 1970’s and again towards the end of the 1980’s with the development of the old garage, the old bus station and then the site of the old Pier Hotel and later on with the Westridge, Bullen Village & Seaview Heights developments. 

The Parish of Nettlestone & Seaview was formed in 1989 and is one of the largest on the island both in population and area. The parish is made up of the two eponymous villages plus the outlying areas of Pondwell, Seagrove Bay, Springvale, the isolated corner of Woodland Close and most of Puckpool Hill. 

Although Seaview was initially built up around the salt industry of the time, it later became a tourist centre during the Edwardian era but today attracts many permanent residents with its all-year-round population increasing and a much larger catchment area for tourists and visitors making it a much more bustling and busy place than it once was.