BITE user comments - Hancock
Comments by Hancock
On the last three occasions I visited the LRL this year, this once busy and friendly pub was deserted, unwelcoming, and the beer was poor to undrinkable. I suppose I could have been very unlucky but some of the comments here make me think these weren't an unfortunate series of "one offs".
15 Jun 2008 13:43
Very shiny and new looking. Beer okay but �11 for a burger!
9 Jan 2008 02:31
Very quiet the last times I've been in. Had an absolutely rank pint of cider served by the rudest barman I've encountered in a while on the last occasion.
It's still a good pub but I'm worried.
9 Jan 2008 02:23
Harveys gone when I was in there. Only IPA and a "guest beer" which tasted surprisingly like IPA.
1 Mar 2007 16:22
A pub with no customers (or just the dregs of the town if the post below is to be believed), which GK won't be able to sell off for flats. Why are they bothering?
Sell it (and the Black Horse) back to Harveys and clear off.
1 Mar 2007 16:17
I've only ever been a very occasional visitor to the Black Horse but I always liked it. Disappointed to find, on my last visit in January, that it it's been "Greened" (that'll probably indicate how long it's been since I was last in there).
The Guinness was okay.
1 Mar 2007 16:07
The "front" bar is very much corner local boozer. The "rock bar" is much larger and a little more up-to-date.
The position of the stage is odd - it's tucked into a corner facing the bar. The music seems to be mostly newer rock/metal.
Nice pint of Pride in their last week.
10 Feb 2007 13:05
The Northern's boarded up now. There had been complaints about it from residents but, as it really didn't seem to be any different to how it's always been, this might have been more down to new residents in the than it's being a bad pub.
It's always a shame to see a pub go.
7 Jan 2007 12:17
Popped in here about a week ago on a Saturday evening around 6pm. The restaurant was empty but the bar, which doesn't seem to have changed that much apart from a few new bits of furniture and the removal of the dart board, was reasonably busy.
The beer (McMullens) was excellent.
3 Dec 2006 16:33
It does seem that the Argus were wrong, as Southdown Jack points out, and drastically wrong at that.
Greedy King have now told the landlady that the Harveys is out from the 20th of November.
13 Nov 2006 15:44
This has been temporarily closed following a miniature riot a week ago. The current license is under review.
7 Nov 2006 00:55
The Argus is reporting that Greedy King has back down and will continue to serve Harveys.
Well done everyone involved.
7 Nov 2006 00:37
Visited here in the summer. It was hell.
A massive queue for the bar (which seemed to have run out of about half their limited range of drinks), and full of screaming children and their belligerent sunburned parents.
16 Oct 2006 15:10
It looks like Greene King are trying to get rid of the Harveys. There was a meeting about it last night.
The mayor of Lewes is also trying to stop Greene King using the town crescent on its own beer (Lewes Arms Ale) and passing it off as local.
14 Oct 2006 03:31
I've always like this place and a visit to their recent beer festival did nothing to shake that. Like alanharmer, I'm inclined to rate this above the LRL now.
Nice mix of people in the bar and the garden, good service, and excellent beer. You can't go wrong!
31 Aug 2006 12:31
I was never that keen on The Harrow, but I couldn't face even going into this place for a look - the exterior tells you everything you need to know. Dreadful.
Spot the none too subtle advert/spam for it in the comments below.
31 Aug 2006 12:26
Still one of the best pubs in SA, and well worth a visit. It does seem to attract more "beer spotters" than any other real ale pub I've been in though. Very odd.
31 Aug 2006 12:22
The landlord used to be happy for you to buy one of the excellent pies from the shop next door and eat it it the pub.
Given the clientelle (mostly older), the fact that they don't do food and are too small really to start serving it, and the competition from nearby trendier places, I think this is one of the pubs that will go under when the smoking ban comes in.
31 Aug 2006 12:10
The Battle of Trafalgar, Brighton
An excellent range of beer and cider, good food, and an all round nice atmosphere. An excellent alternative to the Evening Star if you fancy a break from there.
31 Aug 2006 12:02
A lovely pub. The beer is always excellent and the food - while a bit expensive - is very good.
It does get very busy of a weekend so it's a good idea to get there as the doors open if you want a nice seat in the garden.
There is also a back garden which, despite being not as picturesque as the front, is worth bearing in mind. Most people don't seem to realise it's there.
The last time I visited an army of Morris dancers turned up and, after jumping around, retired to the bar for songs and music. It really was magical.
31 Aug 2006 11:59
Just awful. A town centre food pub in the centre of one of the most beautiful parts of Sussex.
And the beer was bad.
Worth a look for the setting but there are so many better pubs around that area worth visiting.
27 Jul 2006 14:20
Greene King beers aren't really my cup of tea, so I can only comment on the decor (Brighton trendy) and the staff (friendly enough).
Worth a look but a bit pricey. The Basketmakers over the road is better.
16 Jun 2006 12:24
Previously the darker and slightly more traditional Linden Tree, the Stand Up has expanded, brightened up, and continues the fine traditions of its sister pub the Evening Star in Brighton.
Excellent range of beer and cider and very friendly staff/management. A must visit!
16 Jun 2006 12:20
The Basketmakers Arms, Brighton
Another good pub colonised by the "jovial and trendy Brighton middle class" as darloexile so eloquently puts it. This basically means you get stared at by the "locals" (who've all just moved down from London and who seem to view Brightonians as some kind of exotica), and aren't exactly made to feel welcome by the staff. Perhaps it was just "one of theose nights".
The beer's still excellent though, and it was recently declared to be the best pub in Brighton - albeit in a top ten that didn't include the Evening Star!?!?
16 Jun 2006 12:17
A nice enough place to spend a few hours. Three or four real ales on; nice central location; quite a traditional interior; very friendly staff when I was in last week.
3 May 2006 15:28
Nothing good about this place. The beer (Greene King) was poor and it was full of chavs.
3 May 2006 15:25
When most people talk about "traditional" and "local" with regard to pubs in Brighton, they are usually talking about pubs refurbished to appeal to the white flight Londoners who've taken over the town.
The Wellie really is both traditional and local in the way that most pubs were in Brighton up until ten years ago.
Nothing special - just a nice place to have a (usually) good pint.
3 May 2006 15:19
Still a street corner local and still selling excellent beer. The TV is usually only on for the racing and the occasional football match. The (unobtrusive) music is usually jazz or something from the Sixties.
Quite busy during the day/early evening but usually quiet after 8pm.
3 May 2006 15:05
I arranged to meet some friends here but we were booted out when the music began (ticket only admission).
It used to have a very mixed crowd but seemed rather full of "New Brightonians" the night we were there, working their way through the Belgian beers by tick list.
The beer is still well kept.
3 May 2006 14:56
A pub with a tremendous history, this was a bit of a disappointment. The beer was okay but the food - especially the sandwiches - was dismal.
30 Jan 2006 12:50
A nice place. Usually a good choice of beer.
The large back area is popular as a venue for folk music (Thursdays and Sundays) but it seems to be drifting away from English to Irish, which is a shame.
30 Jan 2006 12:43
Probably the best pint of Harveys you'll find in Brighton, and they now do real ciders too.
Early evening tends to be "commuter time", and it can be a bit overcrowded.
30 Jan 2006 12:36
Featured on "Britain's Toughest Pubs", and quite a frightening looking place.
30 Jan 2006 12:32
The Bat and Ball now opens at around 9am/10am and closes early. It's clientelle consists almost entirely of belligerent drunks, one step away from the park bench.
30 Jan 2006 12:31
The food in The Pond's upstairs restaurant has been good for years but timkohlman's spot on about the pub itself - it's declined immensely.
A friend of mine bought a pint of Harveys (lucky chap, theres' not been any on whenever I've popped my head around the door), and it was rank - full of bits. He took it back to the bar only to be told that it was "real ale and supposed to be like that".
Another one bites the dust...
30 Jan 2006 12:28
The Ram was, despite its pretty terrible food, one of the best little pubs in East Sussex.
An old building with a wonderful and authentic historicity to it, a large garden/orchard, and excellent beer - all tucked away in leafy lane on a private estate.
Sadly, a recent change of management has seen all the charm of the interior torn out and replaced with a vaguely minimalist (and hideously green) decor. The beer's still good and very cheap (�1.90 for a pint of Harveys) but all the magic has gone.
The food's improved immensely but is now hideously expensive, and despite the very friendly landlord the place seems cold and unwelcoming.
Our visit wasn't improved by the staff continually throwing damp logs on the fire and making the back bar uninhabitable due to the smoke.
According to the local CAMRA magazine, the locals have been deserting The Ram for The Trevor Arms and I can see why. Once the pub was famous for its folk singing connections (and featured in the recent documentary on Bob Copper and his family) but they seem to have given up on it now.
A terrible terrible shame.
10 Jan 2006 12:11
There aren't many places like this left!
Excellent beer, pleasant enough landlord and staff, a lovely old building (with very very low ceilings), no restaurant (hurrah!), and it's almost in the middle of nowhere.
Occasionally used by a local Morris side for sing-songs which add immeasurably to its "olde worlde" feel.
Superb!
10 Jan 2006 11:48
There are a lot of great pubs in this area but the Anchor seems to be the only one interested in opening during weekday afternoons.
It has a large non-smoking bar and a much smaller smoking bar, well kept McMullens, and is a pleasant enough place to spend a few hours.
10 Jan 2006 11:39
Visited here the day before New Year's Eve and was sorely disappointed.
They had no draft bitter because...they'd not ordered it in time! We ended up having a bottle of Spitfire and going on somewhere else.
The music was too loud and wholly inappropriate.
Worth a look because of its history but you won't want to hang around.
10 Jan 2006 11:34
Nice friendy little old fashioned pub with excellently kept McMullens beers.
It was, I think, the pub where CAMRA was either formed or where they had their first meeting.
10 Jan 2006 11:24
Although not offering quite the variety of beer that it used to, this is still the best real ale pub in the area and an essential visit. And they do real ciders too - always a bonus!
Some of the regulars are, I'm sorry to say, the kind of socially inept real ale drinkers that give the rest of us such a bad name but they are in the minority. If anything, its some of the newer faces (typical of the hordes of Londoners who've been colonising Brighton over the last few years) who've exuded the most "negative vibes" and they've been towards the regulars - very much "This is our pub now" - but that's fairly typical of a lot of pubs in Brighton these days.
Still, it's an easy 10/10.
6 Dec 2005 13:08
Fifteen minutes from Brighton by train, this pub really is a delight. Excellent beer, good unpretentious food, an enormous garden, and the landlord's a nice fella too (although he does look a bit grumpy).
It's what most people would describe as a classic country pub but benefits from being very much a "local", so it comes across as very much alive as opposed to many other country "themed" pubs which are little more than not-very-good restaurants with a bar.
They've even got Toad-In-The-Hole, and you don't see many of those around today (I think the Lewes Arms is the only other place with one in Sussex).
Well worth a vist.
6 Dec 2005 12:52
The last time I visited the Black Horse was about five years ago, and it was something of an oddity then. One bar was closed and the other seemed as though it hadn't seen an alteration since the Seventies. Despite being very much a "locals" pub - and elderly locals at that - it was friendly, and basically okay.
I'd heard that it had been taken over and modernised in the way that's ruined so many good pubs in Brighton, so I never bothered to go back until last night.
Although the decor of the place is typical Brighton trendy, the pub itself appears to be on its last legs. Both the bitters were off, along with the cider (Strongbow), and after a couple of pints the Guinness went too. Even the crisp selection was thin (plain only).
The ladies lavatory was unusable as it was caked in excrement.
Apart from the folk singers (the reason I'd gone along) there were four or five punters in and at least two of them were staggering drunk.
It's a terrible shame because, despite not being in the most picturesque of spots, it's always struck me as having the potential for being a nice little local and its proximity to Kemptown would supply all the patrons it would ever need.
Unfortunately, if it carries on the way it is, it's not going to attract anyone beyond local drunks.
6 Dec 2005 12:16
The White Lion, St Albans
Friendly pub with good beer. One of the best - perhaps the best in St Albans. Marvellous place.
15 Jun 2008 13:52