The Lawrence Arms Pub in Southsea has officially reopened after a five month closure following a Mini crashing into it

The Southsea pub was left with a gaping hole in the front of the building after a man, who has since received a 16-week suspended sentence, drove staright into it in February.

Alison Wearn and her husband Dev Wearn, the landlady and landlord, were asleep in the flat above the pub when the frightening incident took place.

The driver did not have car insurance which meant that the couple had to claim on their insurance to cover the majority of the damage and Alison has sung the praises of their insurance company who helped them get the pub back to the way it was.

The staff had a go at decorating, painting and gardening to help.

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She said: ‘It is good – it is just crazy because we have been shut for five months. It has been really well received, people have embraced it and at 12 o’clock people were at the front door.

‘Today is our official opening but we have had two soft openings and they did really well – I think some of the customers were thinking we would be too busy so it was nice to have those for them.

‘The insurance compnay has been great – the attention to detail is just amazing and the company that did a lot of it are local and they have done a brilliant job.’

The pub opened up at 12 noon on Saturday (July 8) and some of the locals were waiting outside so that the staff had a good reception after all of their work.

Amongst the crowds of punters was John Walker, Bob Hayter and Kristian Glover, all of whom have been visiting the pub on Portsmouth football days.

John said: ‘We discovered the pub after Covid because we didn’t want to go to a Wetherspoons so we were looking for a good pub which has a good selection of beers and this is what we wanted.

‘We wanted to come down here to support the team because they are really nice.’