Hand in Hand, Brighton

In the heart of Brighton’s Kemp Town District is The Hand in Hand, a street corner pub close to the seafront that proudly claims to be “Brighton’s Smallest Pub”. A bright yellow painted exterior featuring a pub sign that depicts two Victorian bathers holding hands prepares us for what can rightly be described as a quirky, idiosyncratic interior. Going through the door, on the angle of the streets, we learn that we “are now entering the free state of Kemptown”. The interior resembles to a certain extent a junk shop – plenty of paraphernalia everywhere in a rather random and unstructured manner. Note in particular the tasteful (?) Victorian nude photos on the ceiling and an impressive collection of ties covering one of the ceiling beams. The walls are covered with pages of old newspapers which are now turning rather yellowish with the passage of time – I noted one old paper announcing the death of Winston Churchill, which was in the 1960’s. In one corner is a piano with an upturned beer crate as the pianist’s stool. A free book exchange service is offered. Perhaps unusually for a non mainstream pub like this, a few photos on a noticeboard indicate a thriving pub cricket team. There’s no TV’s – but there is an antique half size fruit machine with a lever. Whilst it’s an interesting interior, some of the seat coverings are very worn and torn and there’s a certain air of neglect about the place. Outside, the pub advertises itself as the home of “Kemptown Brewery Co Ltd – Established 1989”, although sod’s law being what it is, none of the home brewed ales were on when I dropped in last Sunday lunchtime. I think this must be about the 88th time that I’ve visited a pub that brews its own beers on site (allegedly) only to find no such beers on – see also the Borough Arms in Crewe and The Bankes Arms in Studland for other examples. Having said that, comments posted on a certain unmentionable pub review website indicate that quality of the Kemptown Beers can be unreliable – so I might have had a lucky escape. 6 pumps were selling Dark Star Partridge, Arundel Stronghold, Black Sheep and Adnams Bitter and Regatta. Kemptown beers were noted as “coming soon”. Both the Dark Star and the Arundel beers were excellent. The pub is a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular in recent years. On the exterior wall, a painted notice referred to “Black Moggy- latest from the mad brewer – at a price to be purred about”, which I presume is the Kemptown beer that was coming soon. A mini guide to Kemptown available in the pub tells us that there was a brewery in Kemptown in 1839 – The Bristol Steam Brewery. This eventually became the Kemptown Brewery which was taken over by Charringtons and ceased brewing in 1964. The Hand in Hand is a bit of a trek from the centre of Brighton and, if you particularly want to sample the Kemptown beers – I’ve never seen them in any other pub, incidentally – you might be well advised to phone up first to see whether they’re on

Very small old fashioned and basic pub with it's own brewery next door.Sells their own range of beers which can taste strange at first but OK after you get used to it.10 minutes bus ride from the railway station.