The Thomas Kemp, Brighton

A large front room with a narrower extension past the bar to the rear. There is a long list of expensive "craft" beers plus four hand pumps: one cider and two real ales were available at the time of my visit. I went for Laine Bestest Bitter, which is brewed about a mile away; the other was Hepworth Pullman. As with many large square rooms of this kind, I found the acoustic rather challenging, even though it was not a very busy night. There were some interesting old maps on the wall, but I'm not sure they would be enough to encourage me back for a second visit. Date of visit: 1st January 2017

A large and slightly cavernous opened out pub with a bit of a casual gastro feel about it, plenty of seating through out and to the rear a nice decked courtyard garden.There were four handpumps with a decent selection, I opted for a pleasant pint of darkstar Sunburst.Certainly worth calling in for a beer as it is conveniently placed between The Barley Mow and Hand in Hand two minutes walk either side of here.

As the previous reviewer has said, it's quite dark in here, and from the outside, not that inviting. However, there is a bit of a "beer terrace / garden" out the back, with loads of tables and seating. The food is excellent. Fair sized portions, very well cooked, presented well and reasonably priced. We found the staff to be friendly, helpful and accommodating. As to the beer, I had a pint of Partridge Best Bitter, from the Dark Star Brewery - Very nice indeed. To my mind, far superior to the Laines, but this is purely my personal opinion. Certainly no objection to a return visit.

A good sized and seemingly popular pub, it is a single room affair with large windows at the front that look as though they could be folded open in the warmer weather. It’s quite a deep pub, with the flooring being mostly dark wood other than some black and white chequered tiles around the bar. The walls as predominantly clad in cream wood panelling, although there is some exposed brickwork at the rear. At the front there was a large selection of old maps on the walls, as well as a plasma although this was not in use. Underneath this was a piano with a selection of board games on top. Furniture was mostly was chunky farmhouse tables, and most of these were adorned with daffodils and candles, the latter of which were useful to supplement the low lighting. There was also a low leather sofa in the window at the front. Beers on tap were Natural Blonde, Citra IPA and the very local Laines Best from the Laines Brewery. Ciders were Strongbow and Cheddar Valley.

Before gaining access to the Thomas Kemp one has to walk past the events board which informs readers that there is something going on almost every night of the week. There is a quiz from 20:00 every second Monday, poker on Tuesdays which was in progress during my visit last week, open mic from 20:30 every Wednesday, live music from 21:00 every Thursday and DJs until late on Fridays and Saturdays. This is a large pub with a bar on the left hand wall and plenty of seating throughout. Premium and standard draught products are available from the bar that supports four hand pumps, one of which was unused leaving W J KING’s Brighton Best, Arundel’s Special Bitter and Cheddar Valley cider as the cask options. Food is served with most of the mains costing around £8 and the roasts on Sunday are served from noon and cost £9. I didn’t spot any TV screens, but some modern chart music was playing in the background. There is a garden at the rear that was brimming with smokers during my visit. This is a pub popular with the students of Brighton, of which there are many. Maybe if I was ten years younger I would appreciate the effort that is being put into this pub a bit more. There are pubs in the area more suited to my pipe and slippers tastes so I doubt I’ll be returning here anytime soon.