November 2025. Brighton.
A few new GBG entries along the Sussex coast, so let’s follow up Eastbourne and St Leonards with everyone’s favourite bit of London-by-the-Sea.
Brighton feels a major city these days, with a Top 10 Premier League team and some of the highest parking charges in Western Europe, though the station itself is a bit of a modest introduction.
So modest that no-one else seems to want to get out of their seats as we pull in, gripped by their paperback Dostoevskys and Instagram accounts.
But few cities greet your exit from the station with as much colour as Brighton,
where the contours and colours captivate,
and the pubs that aren’t on your list seem hard to resist.
There’s an air of nostalgia in the North Laines, all vinyl shops and Two Tone.
It seems almost sacrilegious to leave the Laines,
ignore the call of the sea, and head in the Spoons.
The Post & Telegraph is picturesque enough, and alive with the buzz of Old Boys,
and the Jaipur looks, and tastes, close to perfection, a cool, rich and (yes) chewy NBSS 4.5.
Irritatingly, I seem to have lost my latest batch of CAMRA vouchers. Perhaps I never had them, cast aside as the Gold Card waving leach I am.
But it’s only £2.25 ! Still, I could have had it for £1.75 if I’d been more careful. That 50p hurts.
retiredmartin 
“your exit from the station with” Craft Union’s Railway Bell shifting a great deal of Harvey’s Sussex Best at a sensible price.
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I had a Spoons Jaipur in August. Not quite on form, but still a bargain. Think it was 1.99 in The John Logie Baird.
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I’m getting increasingly irate about the ridiculous price at which Jaipur is being sold in Spoons. It’s 5.9% abv, FFS. Are they just doing it to annoy me?
Almost certainly.
Writing this with the dregs of a pint of Jaipur within reach, at a pub less than a five minute walk from Retired Martin Towers. NBSS 4.5, and worth every penny of £5.50. Which is what I paid, coincidentally.
Great photos of Brighton, by the way. Makes the price of my subscription seem really good value. (How much? You cannot be serious!)
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Move to Stafford where, I read, Bass is £2.80.
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Will, Not only “It’s 5.9% abv, FFS” but also a high IBU from expensive hops. In fairness to Thornbridge you should really be paying more than £5.50 !
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£2.25 is plenty for high quality cask.
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Which pub within 5 minutes. I know that, like me, you’re a fast walker, but surely not the Hallamshire ? That would take even me 7 minutes.
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Yes, the Hallamshire House. I reckon you’d walk a little faster if there was a pint of Jaipur waiting for you.
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“Five” in five minutes doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
I really ought to go in the Hallamshire more often, it’s a top pub (even if it can’t make the GBG most years).
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The bloke-who-wears-shorts-every-day-of-the-year: there’s one in every pub in the country now, often an older chap in his 60s or 70s. Maybe they’re all retired postmen.
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Aye, there’s one round here. Indecently brief shorts and heavily tattooed legs…🤢
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There was one on my train to Leeds on Monday. Are they multiplying, and if so how long before they take over?
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In Shetland, even the posties wear long trousers.
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I was saving my comment on shorts wearers (younger ones)in Brighton for the next post !
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I share a small sense of pride that my brother and I contributed to the great shorts awakening. I suspect the attire is particularly common on the streets of Lincoln.
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The Southworths always lead on fashion matters.
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A shocking number of people in Japan are wearing White Sox caps.
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And there was me thinking the Japanese were sensible, intelligent people…
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I was in Tokyo around then. I did not notice many White Sox caps. But if they exist, I’ll scribe it is the long overdue blowback aimed at people there wearing New York Yankees caps.
(‘Pudgy’)
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Burning Sky Aurora was £1.75 in Hastings Spoons today. Very good but a little too cold which may have been because of the weather. I still saw several people in shorts even though it was snowing.
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My Jaipur should have been £1.75 with the vouchers I left at home.
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“(but Jaipur still only £2.25 a pint)”
Blimey. That’s a good price.
“So modest that no-one else seems to want to get out of their seats as we pull in, gripped by their paperback Dostoevskys and Instagram accounts.”
Paperback? Have they not heard of Kindle?
“But few cities greet your exit from the station with as much colour as Brighton,”
Two pubs as soon as you step out of the station. Now that’s a greeting.
“and the pubs that aren’t on your list seem hard to resist.”
(looks down)
The Evening Star made it into Pete Brown’s book, ‘The Pub’.
“It seems almost sacrilegious to leave the Laines,”
Is anything sacrilegious anymore?
“and alive with the buzz of Old Boys,”
Nowt wrong with that.
(says this old boy)
Also, are the two Spoons in Brighton (that you’ve mentioned so far) former large banking establishments?
“and the Jaipur looks, and tastes, close to perfection, a cool, rich and (yes) chewy NBSS 4.5.”
It doesn’t get much better than that (apart from not having the 50p voucher to use).
“Perhaps I never had them, cast aside as the Gold Card waving leach I am.”
First you wake up and don’t know where you are, now you wake up and don’t know where your vouchers are!
“That 50p hurts.”
Pfft. You’re married mate. I’ve taken the philosophical stance that any money I spend is a bit less my darling wife gets to spend. 😉
Cheers
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Paperbacks are in vogue. Rarely see folk with a Kindle.
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Interesting.
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