The Watchmakers Arms, Hove

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Pub SignMan left this review about The Watchmakers Arms

Just a short way down the hill from Hove station, this is a very nice, welcoming micropub converted from the usual former shop unit. As such, it’s a typically narrow, bare boarded space with large shop windows to the front and rows of tables served by high stools and benches down either side of the room. There’s a small servery to the rear with a timber fronted counter and pump clip lined bar back, alongside some tankard strewn shelving to one side, whilst large quantities of hops hang from above. The room has been quite eclectically decorated, which helps give the place a lot more character than your average micro of this ilk. A bookcase to one side was stuffed full of old CAMRA Good Beer Guides and board games and the walls are covered with lots of unusual art prints and random bits of obscure breweriana as well as plenty of timekeeping themed bits and bobs, such as loads of old watches hanging from the ceiling, hinting at the shop’s former use. There are also some deer antlers being used as a cap rack and a boar’s head wearing a sombrero, which added a quirky, off-beat feel, contrasted by a popular Toad in the Hole table that some locals were loudly playing with great enthusiasm near the entrance. The room extends a short way past the bar, where a drinking ledge and high stools offer overspill seating options in an intensely pump clip lined space. Pavement seating is available outside in the summer months, but there was no sign of this on a cold Winter’s evening.
Beer boards listed a healthy selection of ales, mainly from the South East, comprising Vibrant Forest Kick Start, Watchmakers Bezel Bitter, Long Man Wolf Man, Burning Sky Plateau and Fallen Acorn Ooof! With a bit of a wait until my onward train, I had enough time to sample the Plateau and the Ooof!, both of which were in excellent condition and served to me by the genial landlord. There was a good crowd in, generating a nice buzz on a Saturday evening and I would have been more than happy to have stayed and tried their full range.
I thought this was one of the better micropubs I’ve visited over the years, having been fitted out with some decent seating, interesting décor and providing the crucially well-kept range of interesting, local beers. Its proximity to the train station makes it an obvious place to dive into before or after a journey and I’ll hope to find myself back out this way again to do exactly that.

On 20^th March 2023 - rating: 9
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