The Waterside Bars and Restaurant is a public house in Chichester with a long standing history. Situated near the A27 Chichester main road, and at the waters edge of the Chichester Canal, this beautiful and tastefully decorated bar and restaurant still retains its appealing character.

The Chichester Canal opened on 9 April 1822 as a branch of the Portsmouth and Arundel Navigation, a project promoted to complete an inland waterway route between London and Portsmouth. Unfortunately the venture was a commercial failure as the expected traffic never materialised and the company famously never paid a dividend to its hapless shareholders. The company was wound up in 1888 and the portion between Birdham and Chichester passed into the ownership of Chichester Corporation in 1892. The last recorded cargo arrived at Chichester in 1906.

The Waterside opened as The Richmond Arms, named after the 4th and 5th Dukes of Richmond who were supporters of the canal project and great benefactors to the City of Chichester. The pub was built not only to serve the needs of thirsty bargemen, whose horses would be housed in the stable building next door, but also to slake the thirsts of workers at the nearby gasworks, the coal merchants whose yards were on the north side of the basin and the employees of Cover’s timber yard to the south.

There was an identical pub at the other end of the canal at Birdham, next to Salterns Lock. It was named The Egremont Arms after the other nobleman involved with the venture, the 3rd Earl of Egremont. The Earl not only stood guarantor for the £40,000 Exchequer Loan he also invested £15,750 of his own money - and lost the lot! The Egremont Arms has long since closed and is now a private house. The important connection of these local noblemen with the Chichester Canal is acknowledged in the two canal tripboats being named Richmond and Egremont.

The pub was originally part of the estate of the Humphry brothers, whose brewery was at Westgate in Chichester, but the whole brewery estate was sold to the Henty family in 1827. When The Richmond Arms first opened it regularly hosted auctions and also sparring matches, such as that which took place on 2 July 1828 when Ned Neal and “Whiteheaded Bob” set to – the tickets cost an incredible 2s 6d each! In the 1950s The Richmond Arms became part of the Friary Meux estate when that company bought out Henty and Constable.

When first built the pub only comprised the flint-built portion of the present buildings and fronted onto the canal basin, with outhouses on the west (Stockbridge Road) side. The red-brick portions were added to the west and south of the building in 1936 when the outhouses were swept away and the main entrance moved to face onto Stockbridge Road via the present forecourt.

In 1981 The Richmond Arms was taken over by Brian Warner, one of the founder members of the Canal Society which used to meet at the pub. Brian put rowing boats onto the canal and introduced the tradition of good food at the pub. He also founded the famous beer barrel races during Chichester Festivities. Sadly Brian died tragically early, but the beer barrel races continued for several years afterwards and entrants competed for the Brian Warner Trophy as well as suitably-alcoholic prizes.

Since July this year the Waterside has been owned by a new company, who have transformed the interior into a beautiful, stylish restaurant and bar. The outside has seen the addition of new terraces on both the front and the rear with great seating by the waters edge to make the most of this stunning site. The new management team have years of experience in restaurants and bars and are waiting to welcome you with warm and attentive service. We hope to see you for lunch or dinner from the new innovative menu, or just for a relaxing drink in wonderful surroundings.