The Still & West Flooding: 'The pub is fine but my car is more of a mobile aquarium'

Daniel Bowden, is the general manager at The Still & West in Old Portsmouth, and despite working at the popular pub for seven years, last night’s flooding is one of the worst he has seen - and his car has paid the price. He had been away for a few days and arrived home yesterday - ‘blissfully unaware’ of the weather warnings in place, he parked in his usual spot in Broad Street Car Park. Unfortunately, when he realised how bad the weather and flooding was, it was too late and his car was full of water.

The pub also experienced flooding for the first time in years. Thankfully, the flood defences worked their magic with minor flooding coming through the front doors of the property. The team spent hours this morning (April 9) cleaning up the water in the foyer area of the pub and luckily, the wood flooring made the process easier. Some of the eateries in Bath Square experienced power loss as well as flooding as a result of the astonishingly high tides, strong winds and rain.

Daniel’s car, however, was put through the wringer with all of the footwells filling up with sea water. He has since emptied all of the water out of his car and vacuumed as much of it as possible and although the engine starts, one of the doors will not open and some of his electric windows no longer work.

He said: "The risk from strong winds and high tides is the price you pay to have a stunning pub on the water's edge - but thankfully last night's conditions are unusual. The good news is that the pub is fine and we are open as usual. The only casualty is my car – which today is more of a mobile aquarium.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be that bad but then I saw the benches submerged and my car floating around.

“I was blissfully unaware.”

Daniel has now moved his car in case the high tide and flooding happens again this evening.

For more information about The Still & West, click here.