The best pubs in Worthing: a roofer's local guide

1The Beach House on Marine Parade

The Beach House sits on Worthing's seafront at 23 Marine Parade, with a terrace facing the sea. It describes itself as a seafront cafe and bar, with a menu built around locally sourced food, and burgers are the dish it is best known for. Listings give it a Harveys of Lewes beer, which suits a Sussex seaside stop.

Look up as you walk along the front and you will see how much weather these buildings take. Rows of Victorian and Edwardian terraces face open water, so their slate or tile roofs, chimney stacks and lead flashings are tested by spray and wind every winter. Hours vary by day and season, with Monday listed as closed on some directories, so ring or check the website before making a trip. We have not tried to rate the food or the beer; that is a matter of taste.

2The Corner House in the town

The Corner House is listed as a Worthing gastropub, with a local-pub feel and a traditional look. It is a good example of the older commercial buildings that mix a pitched roof over the main rooms with flat or low-pitched sections behind, where kitchens and cellars have been added over the years.

Those junctions between old and new are where a roofer pays attention. A flat roof meeting a brick wall depends on the upstand and the flashing at the join, and a pitched roof meeting a parapet relies on a dressed lead apron. If you are ever looking at an older pub or shop building in the town centre, a damp patch on an inside corner is more often a detail problem than a failed roof. Our guide to Worthing house roofs covers the same weak points on homes.

3The Gun Inn at Findon

Findon is a Downs village a short drive north of Worthing, and the Gun Inn is its well-known village pub, listed as an inn with a restaurant. It is a worthwhile detour when you want a country walk before lunch, with the Downs behind you. Allow a little more time than a town-centre stop, and check the pub's own page for food times and any booking rules.

Village inns like this tend to have long, varied roofs: clay tiles on older ranges, later extensions in other materials, and chimneys that have been rebuilt more than once. Old clay peg tiles and flint-and-brick walls need a gentler touch than a modern estate roof, and repairs are best done with matching materials. If you are in a village property of similar age, our guide to roofing guarantees explains what to ask for before any work starts.

4What a roofer looks for in an old pub building

Pubs are often big, old and altered, which makes their roofs a puzzle. A roofer starts with the largest area, then follows every change in height, every chimney and every junction where one roof meets another. Water usually enters at those joins, not out on the open slope. That is the approach behind everything we do at Watertight Worthing Roofing: find where it starts, then deal with that.

Chimneys on older pubs deserve a close look as well. Stacks that served several fires are often tall and exposed, with flaunching (the mortar cap that holds the pots) cracking first and lead flashings loosening after it. Neither is dramatic, but both let in small amounts of water that add up.

Gutters and downpipes matter more than they look, because a big roof concentrates its run-off at a few points. A blocked hopper or a sagging gutter on a long run can overflow in heavy rain and soak a wall for years before anyone notices. Regular checks after the winter gales are cheaper than repairing the damp that follows. If a roofer turns up uninvited to offer a quick fix on a building like this, read the signs of a dodgy roofer first.

5Planning a pub trip around Worthing

The seafront and the town centre are easy on foot, and the Downs pubs are a short drive or bus ride away. A simple plan is a seafront drink in the afternoon, then a village lunch another day. If you are visiting from elsewhere in West Sussex, check train times as well as pub hours, since weekend services can change.

We are a roofing business, not a pub critic, so treat this as a local pointer. If you have a favourite we have missed, we would be glad to hear about it. And if your visit makes you look up at a loose tile or a leaning chimney, you can see how our work runs in Watertight Worthing Roofing on video, or use the contact page to send us a picture.