Hand in Hand, Brighton

This small corner pub is my kind of boozer. Traditional well worn decor, Characterful locals (some of which have to be taken with a pinch of salt when they refuse to acknowledge you or move slightly on their prime position stalls so that you can see the pumps) and great beer. Been well described below so won’t repeat any of that. Fortunately the in house brewery ales were on with two available for my visit and the Thirty Three went down a treat. Smashing little pub.

Located just a short distance from the beach front, this tiny single room pub is also the home of the Kemptown Brewery. Sadly on my visit, no Kemptown beers were available, but a note written on a blackboard explained that brewing ceased for a while but was set to resume again soon. Despite the small size of the pub, there is plenty of stuff crammed inside to keep you distracted. The short servery is in the far corner with the rest of the carpeted room taken up by bench seating and some standard tables along two of the walls, plus a drinking ledge with high stools to the rear. An upright piano fills up one corner of the room and has an old sewing machine and a pile of books on top, whilst a huge Kempton Brewery sign is propped up against the exposed brick wall next to the servery. The window sills have a large collection of hot water bottles on them and there is an old-fashioned fruit machine near to the front door. The walls at the rear of the pub have been papered with old advertisements and newspaper pages from the 1950’s and 60’s. Old photos of the pub can be found here as well as various CAMRA awards from years gone by. The ceiling is covered with all manner of objects including mugs, tankards, photos of Victorian era nudes, ski poles, broomsticks and a tie collection that runs along a central beam. It may all sound cluttered and chaotic but I found it was a nice comfortable room, although I was lucky enough to grab a seat, which many others weren’t, forcing them to take their drinks to the pavement outside. The lack of Kemptown beers was more than made up for by the strong selection available in their place. I had a choice of St Austell Tribute, Otter Amber (£3.20), Arundel Stronghold, Adnams Southwold Bitter, Brains Milkwood and Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted. The keg range was pretty interesting as well and included something from Meantime and Delirium Tremens. I enjoyed a very pleasant pint of the Otter Amber served to me by a friendly barmaid. I really liked the feel of this pub, which sees itself as an important part of the local community and is a keen promoter of the Kemptown area. It’s a shame the brewery wasn’t up and running, but when it’s back on track again, I would suggest that this place will become a must-visit pub once again.

Another striking building, located just off the seafront in the Kemptown area. Half the reason for coming here was the lure of the Kemptown brewery beers (heftily advertised on the building’s exterior) but – quelle surprise – they weren’t on and there was no indication they had appeared at any time in the recent past. Given how many other people have experienced this on here and elsewhere, I think it’s all rather a swizz. Anyway there were five ales on at least: Sadlers (good), Dark Star Partridge, Adnams Bitter, Black Sheep and a Brains summer ale. Also Kriek beers on draught and Belgian bottles. I vaguely recall a cider but didn’t note what it was. The interior is pretty small yet home to a large catalogue of bric-a-brac (fairy lights, lips under top bar, varnished newspapers on far wall, one arm bandit, board games, ties, jugs, pictures of various Victorian ladies amongst other things) as well a lucid red and blue carpet. Music choice I have written as ‘Arab dune’, so clearly not your average. It’s a good few minutes out of the city centre and given the annoying lack of Kemptown brewery beers don’t necessarily miss out other places in order to specially do this one. It’s still worth a visit if you have the entire day at your disposal though. If I could give it 6.5, I would.

The Hand in Hand is a tiny single room pub that had an overpowering smell of incense wafting about on Tuesday evening last week. There was some jazz music playing and I found the governor to be very friendly. The bar supports six hand pumps and these were drawing W J King’s Old Ale, Harviestoun’s Bitter and Twisted, Hyde’s Owd Oak Dark, Bakehouse’s Cupcake, Hammerpot’s Bottle Wreck porter and Brain’s Bread of Heaven. There was also a decent range of draught which consisted of Becks Vier, Liefmans, Hacker-Pschorr, Meantime’s Helles, Stowford Press cider and Guinness. This pub certainly has the most interesting range of beers this side of Brighton and is probably worth the trek for beer lovers. Also, I think that it is a close call whether this or the Queensbury Arms is the smallest pub in Brighton. If I had to guess I would say that the Hand in Hand just shades it.

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