12 August 2026

Beer and sandwiches: At the White Hart Inn in Aldeburgh

This column is our weekly pub review, written by pintsmen, women and children across the nation. Suggestions to letters@newstatesman.co.uk

By New Statesman

Illustration by Marta Signori

The White Hart Inn in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, comprises an agreeable, timber-lined, rectangular room, with the bar in one corner and large windows to the street, accompanied by a hard standing area at the rear which shelters denizens from the extremes of North Sea weather. Sitting on the benches lined up outside the unprepossessing single-storey building, patrons may not be surprised to learn that the late-18th-century rendered building next door was the original public house and has garnered Grade II-listed status.

When the chips are up

The success of the current White Hart is partly down to the welcome and undivided/ undivisive space, but almost certainly because of the proximity of the Aldeburgh Fish and Chip shop, whose fare it shrewdly welcomes customers “to enjoy in our beer garden when accompanied by a drink bought from the bar”. This makes it a popular alternative to the neighbouring stretch of pebble beach, where seagulls the size of toddlers can turn mealtimes into a combat zone – plus, the risk of a £2,500 fine for feeding the gulls, even unintentionally.

Waiting games

In the peak summer months, fish-and-chip queues are measured in pints of Adnams, and involve the organisation of a relay of family members to ensure no one is standing for too long.

The White Hart has recently introduced some food competition in the form of wood-fired pizzas, which are proving a worthy contribution to the English pastime of queueing and, appealingly, seem less attractive to the seagulls.

The White Hart Inn, Aldeburgh, Suffolk