Very friendly pub with nice resturant and good food. Our room (4) was pleasant with good bathroom. My fears about parking turned out to unfounded as we parked outside pub and used residents permit supplied by pub. Nice 10min walk by stream/river into centre of Winchester.

Summary: The King Alfred is a perfect choice for accommodation in Winchester! It's on a quiet residential street, a very pleasant 10 minute walk to the centre. We will most definitely return to the King Alfred for our future visits to Winchester.

Background: We visited Winchester for two days. We chose to stay at the King Alfred based on previous TripAdvisor and booking.com reviews. See my review under "Restaurants" for further details on the pub itself and on the excellent dinners we had there.

Details: Rooms are quite comfortable; the large double (room 3) had plenty of space for our 4 pieces of luggage as we returned from a trip overseas. The other rooms are smaller but still furnished to the same standard. The staff is excellent; very friendly yet will allow you complete privacy if that's what you desire. There is no parking on the premises, but this is not a problem as the hotel provides a residential permit and you will find a space within a block of the hotel. The free wifi worked flawlessly.

Full English breakfast was included each day, with eggs (well, one egg to be precise) cooked perfectly to order and served very quickly. A selection of fresh fruit, yoghurt, and cereal was also available.

My adverse comments will sound too negative, as we will most definitely return to the King Alfred for our future visits to Winchester, but I would like to point out a couple of things for future visitors.

Room 3 was in generally good condition but the walls are ready for a refresh as the corners are peeling a bit. The mattress is due for a replacement soon too. The bedroom is bright during the day, but after dark lighting in the bedroom is very poor. Lighting in the bathroom was very good even though one bulb was out. Speaking of the bathroom, there is no bath in room 3; only a shower. That was not a problem for us as we much prefer showers, and in fact it's a very nice large shower with good pressure and plenty of hot water but others could be disappointed by the lack of a bath. I don’t know if any of the other rooms include a bath. The room was reasonably clean, but not 100% perfect as a few spots got missed. For example, the mirror in the bathroom had toothpaste specks from several previous occupants.

Saxon Road is a small residential street and there is no traffic to bother you. The pub itself can be a little noisy early in the evening, but it’s not really noticeable upstairs in the rooms. The pub seems to calm down by 10pm and you won’t be disturbed at all in the bedrooms after that time. Other reviewers mentioned the extractor fan making some noise outside; I can see that this could possibly be an inconvenience for rooms 1 or 4 but it would not affect rooms 2 or 3 at all. The walls are a bit thin and our neighbour turned on his television at 5:30am. I don’t think it was loud, but we certainly could hear it. Other than that, the rooms are quiet.

Finally, there is a full size armoire for suits, trousers, etc., but no place to hang a long dress or coat.

This was in an excellent position for visiting Winchester, only a short walk to the town centre. The room we had was perfect, no complaints at all. Staff were all very friendly. We did not have an evening meal here but breakfast was very good. We would definitely stay here again.

Lovely, welcoming place to stay. I had never been to Winchester before and picked The King Alfred solely down to the reviews on here. Was not disappointed. Immaculate, comfortable, friendly and fab food. Planning to return early next year.