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Detail Pages
The Victory Inn, Brighton
Brighton
BN1 1AH
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Victory Inn
This very attractive traditional pub has an excellent location in amongst Brighton’s main shopping streets. The beautiful tiled exterior, which includes various images of the eponymous ship as well as signs for Tamplins Ales, is very enticing and so despite not having the pub down on my planned crawl, I soon found myself at the bar. The main room is fairly narrow with the servery running along the back wall with just enough room for two tables with chairs and one high table made from a barrel that was apparently found in the pub’s basement in 1996. The place looks a bit scruffy with chipped paint on the walls and doors and some well worn floorboards contrasting the smart servery area and bar back. Perhaps the highlight of the room, and another draw for those walking past, is the excellent coloured etched glass in the front windows, also advertising Tamplins Ales. To the right of the servery there is access to another room which is split into two sections and seems to act as the dining space. There is plenty of standard seating in this part of the pub as well as a few pews and a button backed sofa. An eclectic range of pictures, photos, paintings and maps line the walls and there is a model ship in one of the windows. A corridor leads past the toilets to an unexpected paved courtyard at the rear.
There are four hand pumps on the bar although only three were in action on my visit as the fourth had a turned pump clip. The choice of Dark Star Summer Solstice (£3.70), Laines Brewery Laines Bitter and Anchor Springs Hornblower was both interesting and sufficiently local. I gave the Summer Solstice a try, which brought much approval from the stag party group stood next to me at the bar who had clearly sunk a few already. Thankfully after seeing it slip down very easily it got my seal of approval as well.
Brighton, perhaps in its haste to appeal to its unconventional demographic, doesn’t always represent the traditional pub well, but I thought this place was pitched well and would appeal to a wide range of people. Well worth calling in on your way back from a day on the beach or round the shops.
On 31st July 2012
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about The Victory Inn
The traditional exterior of the Victory makes one want to pop in as it screams ‘proper boozer’. At the front of the pub is a narrow bar that supports a few standard draught products alongside Amstel and four hand pumps that were drawing Dark Star’s Over The Moon (dark and superb), Brighton Best and Prospect with the fourth pump being unused. There is an old TV up in the corner and a more modern plasma screen can be found in the rear seating area. Both of these were off during my Tuesday evening visit and I spotted no sport advertisements. There is something advertised for every night of the week and these include local DJs on Friday and Saturday nights, games night on Tuesdays (not that much was happening on the recent Tuesday evening I visited) and live music on Thursdays. There is an upstairs lounge that I did not visit and to complement the two picnic tables out the front there is also a courtyard at the rear with some covered seating.
I liked it in here and would have no problem returning.
On 28th October 2011
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5251 recommendations about 5219 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Bonser left this review about The Victory Inn
Another first posting !
Occupying a street corner position in the heart of Brighton’s shopping district, on the edge of The Lanes, is The Victory Inn, a smallish attractive looking pub whose fine tiled exterior still advertises the delights of Tamplins Ales, Wines and Spirits and which still retains the etched glass indicating it was once a multi room pub.
Outside, we learn that the pub dates back to circa 1766 and that it was rebuilt in 1824 to commemorate The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, although quite why it took some 19 years to get round to doing this is not explained.
A small wooden bar counter with an attractive bar back serves a narrow main bar and 2 further adjoining rooms round the side and back. The interior is decorated with naval memorabilia, including a number of framed prints of HMS Victory. One of the rooms has a couple of sofas, but, apart from that, furniture consists of rather rustic looking heavy duty pine tables and chairs. Small vases with flowers on each table add something of a homely feel, although some of the flowers had clearly seen better days. Despite the bare boards, it’s a reasonably pleasant and traditional interior. There’s further rooms upstairs in similar style. Sitting in the main bar, I noted that the barrel base of my table had a small plaque telling us that “this barrel was discovered in the cellars of The Victory in 1996”.
Food plays a major part of the offering ( but it’s definitely a pub not a restaurant ) and, on my recent Saturday lunchtime visit, the pub was quickly starting to fill up with hungry shoppers and visitors eager for some sustenance and a respite from the rain.
4 real ales were available – W J Kings Brighton Best and South Downs Ale, Dark Star Saison and Arundels Castle, the latter being a fine dark malty pint, probably one of the highlights of my Brighton visit.
Staff here were noticeably more friendly and enthusiastic than in some other pubs. Taking the visit as a whole, this is likely to be one of my first ports of call when I’m next in Brighton
On 21st July 2011
- rating: 7
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]