WITH just two bottles of spirits, a handful of beer mats and a small stack of glasses, Brockenhurst's newest pub probably sounds a bit downmarket.

But the meagre trappings of Harry's Bar have become a huge tourist draw in the two weeks since it opened.

For the drinking hole frequented by Harry Holland and Alan Phillips has a very distinctive feature - it's in a bus stop.

The pair started drinking in the Lyndhurst Road shelter after being barred from two village pubs.

Harry was kicked out of the Foresters Arms for throwing a bottle at his brother while Alan is unwelcome at the Snakecatcher after a series of non-violent disturbances in the pub.

Now the pair while away the hours in the bus stop which sits between the two off-limits establishments.

The bar boasts a pair of optics - containing cold water and cold tea - a couple of posters and a plaque which reads: Harry's Bar.

Ferry worker Harry, 24, said: "I'm barred from the Foresters and my friend Alan is barred from the Snakecatcher. I said: 'You get a beer from there, I'll get one from here and we'll sit at the bus stop.'

"Another landlord from another pub who knows me saw us and said he was going to put up a couple of optics and a nice plaque. That's how it all started off."

He added he and his brother did not fall out over the bottle-throwing incident.

Bricklayer Alan, 22, of Brookley Road, Brockenhurst, said: "I had no one I could drink with in the Foresters and he had no one he could drink with in the Snakecatcher so we said let's meet halfway."

Barman Charlie Tutty, of the Foresters, said: "It's quite funny seeing them. You get a lot of people looking at the optics.

"There's a bottle of Southern Comfort and one of vodka. It's only water and cold tea in there but they've had to be refilled."

Sandy Bergstrom, landlord of the Snakecatcher, said: "It's caused much amusement and mirth around the village."

He said he had stopped serving Alan a while ago because of a few occasions when he made a drunken nuisance ofhimself with friends.

Sean Cooney, bar manager at the Forest Park Hotel, revealed himself as the creator of the new bar.

He said: "We decided to get a plaque done and put optics up and name it Harry's Bar. It's become a tourist attraction. The amount of people who stop and take a picture is amazing.

"It's been so successful I'm thinking about opening a string of bus shelters across the country."

PC Ian Hunt, beat officer for Brockenhurst, said: "I'm not aware of a public law that prohibits them from drinking in a bus shelter."

Paul Roberts, manager of Cycle Experience which owns the bus shelter, said: "I think it's great, otherwise I wouldn't have let it go up. It's just a bit of fun!"