The Royal George, Hove

This is a fairly typical High Street branch of the Wetherspoons chain, occupying a relatively small unit on a pedestrianised retail street. The single room interior has been carpeted throughout, with the seating arranged into six rows running from front to back and offering a nice mix of tables and chairs, high tables and stools and a few padded banquettes formed into booths down the right-hand wall, with some Covid screens dotted around to ensure the space is maximised to its full potential. The servery is along the left-hand wall and has a long dark wood counter broken by a couple of small pillars, with a typical Wetherspoons mirrored bar back and a pleasant flower-strewn canopy. Similar flowers could also be seen around the condiment station at the front of the room and around the tops of the various local information boards which dot many of the walls. The place was pretty packed on a Saturday afternoon and despite the screens, it was difficult to really maintain adequate distance from other punters. Having said that, this place at least appeared to be trying hard to do the right thing, employing a greeter at the entrance who ensured everyone used the hand sanitiser and then found free tables, of which I was fortunate enough to grab the last one. This is considerably more effort than I’ve seen from other Wetherspoons, so some credit is due there. Outdoor seating is available in the form of a row of tables and chairs out the front of the pub, although I was told that these have to be taken in at 3:30 for some unknown reason. After a quick check at the bar, I was able to establish they has three guest ales on alongside two ‘Spoons regulars and a real cider, with at least three pumps out of action. I opted for a pint of Dorking Pilcrow Pale, which was in good nick and went down very well after a long, hot walk here from Portslade. I also had food here and the service was quick and cheery whilst the grub itself was the usual acceptable fayre. This seems like a decent enough ‘Spoons with a nice, almost cosy feel to it, some friendly service and well-kept beer. There are undoubtedly more interesting pubs in and around Hove, but this is a solid option which worked very well as part of a crawl and I would be more than happy to come back here again.

Official site of Cliftonville Inn (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Official site of Cliftonville Inn (JD Wetherspoon) - www.jdwetherspoon.com

Completely mundane shop-conversion 'spoons with nothing of any real interest apart from the real ale selection from two banks of six handpumps. This was a bit better than average, with a decent number of festival beers including Caledonian Vienna Red.

This is an old school Spoons dating from 1995 that was once a furniture shop. Inside it's one large square room with the bar on the left. An unusual feature is a dart board that is apparently used for matches on weekday evenings. On the bar there are two sets of six hand pumps, on the right were two ciders, GK IPA, Doom Bore, London Pride and Broadside. The left side had one unused, Hepworth Iron Horse and Old, Welton's Headless Horseman, Long Man Long Blond and Turner's Best. I went for the Headless Horseman (£2.59) which was in good nick but seemed a bit steep considering other beers were marked at £1.99 but it is a 6% beer. If you don't like Spoons you won't like it here but I thought it was OK.

The Cliftonville Inn is a large single room and open plan Wetherspoons pub that was a quarter full with older gentlemen and students when I visited on Tuesday evening. The right hand side is taken up by lots of seating and the bar is found on the left hand wall. The usual draught suspects are all found here and the twelve hand pumps were drawing a mix of JDW stalwarts and beers from local breweries. The drinks are cheap, as is the food even before certain promotions are taken into account. I found the staff to be efficient and the manager seemed like he was very popular with the locals. I wasn’t surprised that there was no back music playing, but I was surprised to see the Arsenal v AC Milan Champions League game being shown on the two plasma screens. Obviously the sound was muted, but it’s a step in the right direction. ;) I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit any Spoons pub, but I’d have no problem returning here if passing.