Lawrence Arms pub thriving one year after Southsea venue was forced to close by car crash

In the early hours of Saturday, February 18 2023, a black mini Mini Cooper tore through the wall of The Lawrence Arms, Southsea. The shocking incident took place while the pub’s owners Dev and Alison Wearn were sleeping upstairs, and they were awoken by a loud bang, feeling the entire building shake from the impact of the collision. Hours after the incident, Alison described the carnage including the sight of "a car parked in the front of the pub." A 21-year-old man from Portsmouth was banned from driving for two years after the crash, which left a gaping hole in the 135-year-old pub as well as other damage which was not fixed until July 2023.

Speaking to The News one year on from the crash, Alison said: “It perhaps highlighted us to more people, which is always a good thing, and let people know we were still there. Covid changed - I think - the pub industry quite a lot, so perhaps it brought back people who hadn’t been to us for quite a while."

Alison, who has run the pub for the past 14 years, said that the pub enjoyed a “record-breaking” December last year and added that friends in the industry enjoyed similar success. During the period of closure, the Lawrence Arms team worked in other hospitality businesses in and around the city has part of its "borrow a barmaid/man" scheme, devised to keep staff occupied and give back to the local community.

She added: "We met other people at different bars and made new friends in the industry. A lot of our friends enjoyed a record-breaking December - as did we - so that took the edge off of January a bit. It’s a nice, positive thing that people are still going out, even with the cost of living crisis.  Since Covid, we have found that our business has increased and I hope that people are a bit more aware of supporting small businesses.

“My parents would always say to me ‘everything happens for a reason’ even though you perhaps can’t see it at the time. Although it perhaps wasn’t an ideal way for it to happen, it has given us a lot. Even borrow a barmaid. Just going somewhere different and seeing how they did things differently. That has been a really positive thing from the crash that has changed in the last year."

A spokesperson for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said: ‘Razhan Issabad, 21, of Grosvenor Street, Portsmouth, pleaded guilty to driving dangerously, failing to stop after a road accident, driving without insurance and driving without a licence. He was sentenced at Portsmouth Magistrates Court on April 17. He received a 16-week suspended sentence, and was ordered to do 80 hours of unpaid work and pay costs of £239. He was disqualified from driving for two years.’