The Jenny Lind, Hastings

Tucked away in the old part of Hastings, the Jenny Lind is a pleasant two-bar backstreet pub offering a warm and characterful setting. You enter into a wide but shallow main bar area, where limited high stool seating is available along a ledge beneath the front windows, while the servery runs along the back wall. The bar itself features a smart wood-panelled counter with a curved end, a simple canopy, and a cut-out bar back that offers a view through to the rear room. A little extra seating can be found to the far left, but the right-hand side of the room has been largely given over to a high stage, partly obscuring an attractive brick fireplace — although the fine decorative surround and pub mirror topper above it remain in clear view. A band was setting up during my Saturday evening visit, adding to the sense of a lively night ahead. A connecting lobby to the right of the bar leads through to the rear room, a smaller space with tables and chairs, a covered bar billiards table, another fireplace, and further access to the bar. From here, a side beer garden can also be reached, though I didn’t explore it, and there is a roof garden which was closed on this visit due to high winds. An impressive selection of Only With Love beers were available across the pumps, including Yacht Rock, Umbra, Firecracker, Hygge, Dodger, Koha (£4.70 a pint and in great nick) and The O.G. Best, alongside one real cider and a second boxed option positioned at the end of the bar. At least three more Only With Love beers could be found on keg as well. The bar staff were very friendly and welcoming, and the atmosphere was enhanced by a background soundtrack of old jazz tunes playing quietly around the pub. I really enjoyed my time here and thought it was the sort of pub that would appeal to a wide range of customers. The Only With Love ale range is a good draw and I think I would've enjoyed staying here to sample more of their beer if it was all in as good condition as the one I sampled. Definitely one of the highlights of my time in Hastings, so be sure to make time to check the place out if you're crawling around the town. Date of visit – 21st December 2024

This is another decent ale house on the Hastings Old town High Street. Dating from 1851 when it opened on the site of the Bell, an old Hastings Inn dating back to the Reformation of 1600, this two-room pub is named after a famous mid-19th-century Swedish opera singer for reasons I couldn’t ascertain. The long and roomy front bar has a bit of an ale house vibe about it, with limited seating and plenty of space for vertical drinking and then the back bar is warmer and cosier with a real fire and a bar billiards table tucked into one section. Beyond this is a terraced garden behind the pub which would be a pleasant spot on better days than the one we experienced. The front bar supports an impressive row of 10 ale pumps, but closer inspection reveals that the house ales of Longman Best Bitter and GK Abbott were doubled up with one on and one with a coming soon tag, then an additional coming soon label and one reverse clipped meant there was actually six ales available. These included Longman Session Pale Ale and Wantsum Brewery Black Pig alongside the house ales.

Not a particularly attractive pub externally but more interesting inside, a long front bar with servery to match and a smaller more intimate room to the rear. I didn't note all the beers whilst there but there was plenty of choice, my choice was a very acceptable Pig & Porter Jumping Frog. The pub experience was a little dulled by the Covid rules but obviously a very good pub.

Picked the wrong time for my first visit to this place, which was absolutely rammed due to the Jack in the Green parade temporarily stopped nearby and although there were plenty of staff they were struggling to cope. However, I did eventually get a pint of Franklins Thr33 Pint Five, one of a very good selection of eight real ales available from the ten handpumps. I also noted that the main front bar was decorated and furnished in an alehouse style, with the smaller rear bar being more traditional in appearance.

A good beer pub down in the Old Town. Two rooms, either side of the central bar, with a fair amount of old woodwork and a couple of real fires. The cosier room behind houses a bar billiards table. A splendid range of 10 mainly-local beers on handpump, plus four boxed ciders. The beer seemed to be in excellent condition, noting Cask Marque accreditation and regular GBG entries. There are signs to a garden upstairs, but not visited.