TUCKED away off the hustle and bustle of Shirley High Street in Southampton lies a pub steeped in history and spooky goings on. The Kings Arms pub on Church Street was built in 1852 and must be doing something right as many regulars have been drinking in there for more than half a century.

Although the regulars are well behaved today, back in January 1904 former landlord J Allen was fined the princely sum of £1 by local magistrates after he served a drunken customer.

But present landlady Kristine Baldacchino has no such problems with regulars now and says socialising with them is the best part of the job.

Kristine, 38, who started working at the bar in 1990 before working her way up to licensee in 1995, said: "I'm still here because I like the regulars. I've been offered other pubs but I've always declined them because I want to concentrate on this pub alone."

The pub has three darts teams, a pool team and a cribbage club and has a DJ every Saturday that plays music from the 50s to present day hits.

Kristine added: "I go to all the darts, pool and cribbage games and get involved with all the regulars to give them my support because I enjoy it, not because I have to."

But there is more than one kind of spirit lurking behind the bar if rumours of the ghost of an old regular who died in the bar are to be believed.

Kristine said: "There was a bloke who died in here years ago in the lounge bar. I've never seen or heard anything but several times I have felt like something has walked past me.

My partner and sister have noticed it too. When my sister worked here she saw some brandy glasses and a Baileys bottle fall off a shelf."

And smokers in the pub will be able to puff away to their heart's content come July 1 when the smoking ban hits England as Kristine has already installed an outside canopy to protect regulars from the elements.

The Kings Arms, Church Street, Shirley. Tel: 023 80398402