North Laine Brewhouse, Brighton

As I was in the area, and had time for a last pint before leaving town, I decided a revisit was in order. Oh dear! A bit of a disappointment. The handpumps were unclipped, so I had to peruse the keg taps. Wanting something different to the Laine's offerings (most of which I've sampled in various venues in recent years), I opted for Bedlam's "Wilde" East Coast Pale Ale, and this turned out to be a bit of a struggle. While the pub was as busy as usual (this being a Friday afternoon), I'm sure I'll be hesitating before returning.

This is a huge pub and brewery located in a former nightclub opposite Victoria Gardens and on the fringes of the eponymous Laines. The pub has an enormous L-shaped layout comprising a large raised front seating area and the main bar space which runs to the rear down the right hand side. The front seating area has dark floorboards and bare brick walls and sees curved banquettes skirt around the front bay windows, with pews and fixed benches around the rest of the perimeter plus some low stools through the centre. The walls have been decorated with a selection of seemingly random paintings, drawings and photos, a huge sign for Source Pale Ale and an old cash register. Some pillars dotted through the space incorporated some elaborate stone angels and were quite an imposing sight. The bar is to the let as the pub runs to the rear and has a plain counter and bar back with a couple of large conditioning tanks to one side and the brewery plant visible in the space behind. canteen-style bench seating fills as much of the the space opposite the bar as possible, but it's such a cavernous room that there is still ample standing room throughout. Passing under a huge model bird, you reach the darker rear section of the pub where some more interesting statues can be seen along with some big wall murals and loads of regular tables that look best suited for diners. The Laines Brewery operates out of the pub and four of their beers - Best Biter, Doubloon, Brighton Blend and Hop Bomb - were on handpull with several more available on keg dispense. My Doubloon poured okay but was flat before I'd got even a third of the way through it, which was a shame. The staff seemed relentlessly upbeat and the pub had a funky jazz soundtrack playing happily away in the background for much of my visit. I thought I would really like this place but it really struggled to generate much of a pubby feel and left me a bit cold as a result. Efforts have clearly been made to create a relatively warm, comfortable feel, but the place is just far too big and empty for that to properly work. This, coupled with some dubious beer quality, left me with more questions than answers by the time I left and I'd hesitate to add this place to future crawls.

I really wanted to like this one especially as it would usurp the King and Queen as the only place worth visiting on Gloucester Place. Perhaps it different in the evening with a few in, but sadly on a Friday early afternoon with only a couple in, this barn of a place was fairly soulless even with the chirpiness of the helpful young serving staff. My experience was also not helped by the fact that my half of Hop bomb had gone largely flat on me by the time I reached the bench seating by the front window. Now it is a fair trek from the bar to the front window but that still shouldn’t happen. Like others far better this guise than the former Gloucester Nightclub and hopefully I just caught it at a wrong time and I will make a point of checking again when in Brighton next.

It’s hard to imagine that this was once a purpose-built pub called the Gloucester Hotel. The interior has been completely stripped out and is probably large enough to house the R101. On entering from the left side, you drop down a few steps to the main floor which is modern shiny bare boarded, like a dancefloor. Furniture is mixed, comprising converted barrel tables, fairly conventional circular tables with stools and long benches. A huge wooden sculpture of a bird hangs from one wall. It was completely empty apart from two mothers, both with babies in prams which looked a bit incongruous in a place like this. The industrial-looking concrete bar runs along a fair stretch of the rear, above there are oversized industrial lights. To the rear are the brew tanks for the Laine Brewery. Ominously, there was a DJ’s double-barrelled gramophone to the rear and paraphernalia which hinted at nightclub usage. In short, the place looks like a student union bar, all the more so due to the presence of games machines. Ales: many, I opted for the Laine’s Best Bitter at a reasonable £2.15 a half and very nice it was too. To my mind great beer maketh not a great pub, that’s if this place can even be described as such - I’d not like to be in here one bit if dance anthems kick off and glow sticks come out, but better this than being sorted for Worthington Es.

Official site of North Laine Brewhouse - brewedinbrighton.co.uk

Official site of North Laine Brewhouse - brewedinbrighton.co.uk