Pair of friends take over The Florence Arms to give classic boozer new lease of life

The Florence Arms, which sits in Florence Road, Southsea, has been a firm fixture in the area for decades and a new dynamic duo have officially taken over the boozer with high hopes of driving the pub to the top.

Chris Ball, who also owns Maya in the city, and his friend Dan Susans, were on the hunt for a new location to take over when they stumbled on the pub.

And with a short turnaround of five weeks, the pair officially took over on Friday, June 20 and opened to friends and family for a soft launch to find their feet.

Chris said: “Me and Dan have wanted to do something together for a while now and we have been looking for the right place - I’m from Portsmouth and we wanted to run a pub so when the Florence came up we went for it.

“It’s such a lovely venue, a lovely space and the location is in a great area so it seemed a great opportunity to take it on and do the pub concept we want. I really love pub food so we want to do pub classic with a few twists and spins on them.

“I’m really excited, it’s a great spot so it should be somewhere that locals can come and enjoy it - it’s definitely a mixture of excitement and nervous, it’s a nervous energy but it will be good.”

The menu has seen a significant change, alongside the drinks menu, and the two friends have said they are looking forward to showcasing the new dishes.

The 43-year-old also said that they have got a fire in the kitchen so the team will be offering a variety of grilled dishes including steak.

Chris added: “With Maya we went about it a bit quietly, it was a soft opening and a soft launch but there was a lot of word of mouth there and that’s how I wanted it to be but the Florence Arms is a different kettle of fish.

“It is a lot bigger and the pub was slowly starting to be run down so getting the awareness out there that are new owners that are interested in driving it and giving it a new lease of life is really important.”