Best Pubs in Brighton 2026: Where Locals Actually Drink
Brighton's pub scene is one of the best in England, with around 340 pubs across the city and eleven per square mile. Photo: Squarespace
Where Brighton locals actually drink in 2026
Let us be honest about Brighton. Finding a pub here has never been the hard part. The city has around 340 of them, roughly eleven per square mile, so you are never more than a short stagger from a pint. The hard part is finding the good ones. The ones locals actually drink in, week in week out, not the tired chain boxes you could find in any town in England.
Brighton does not really do chain pubs. The places that last here have a point of view. They have regulars the staff know by name, tap lists run by people who can talk you through a beer without making you feel stupid, and a crowd that actually wants to be there. And every corner of the city drinks differently. Hanover is not Kemptown. The Lanes is not Hove. A proper Brighton pub crawl is really a tour through a dozen little villages that happen to share a postcode.
So this is the honest list. The pubs Brighton locals would actually send you to in 2026.
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Brighton's Best Pub 2026
The Signalman
This is the one the city crowned. The Signalman was voted Best Brighton and Hove Pub at the 2026 BRAVO Awards, the first time it has taken the top spot, chosen entirely by the public out of a record 71,285 votes. Its team called it a home from home for everyone, and that is exactly how it feels when you walk in.
Tucked just by London Road station near Preston Circus, it runs on bare brick, books on the shelves, open fires in winter and two of the best beer gardens in Brighton when the sun is out. The kitchen is Big Sam's Kitchen, and its Sunday roast has become one of the most talked-about in the city: roast beef, pork belly with proper crackling, crispy potatoes, cheesy leeks and Yorkshire puddings the size of your face. If you only drink in one pub off this list, make it the one Brighton itself picked.
The Cricketers
There has been a pub on this Black Lion Street spot since 1547, which makes the Cricketers the oldest pub in The Lanes and one of the oldest in the whole city. Its neighbour the Black Lion argues the point, but let them. Step inside and you are in a maze of snug little rooms, red velvet booths, dark wood panelling and framed prints stacked to the ceiling, spilling out into a cobbled courtyard at the back.
It was drunk in by Graham Greene, immortalised in Brighton Rock, and is tangled up in Jack the Ripper folklore. The upstairs bar is named the Greene Room in his honour. Part of the Golden Lion Group alongside the Ladies Mile in Patcham. The food leans on local Sussex produce and the ghost walks still set off from the door. Turning up on a weekend without booking is optimistic.
The Evening Star
Ask anyone who knows Brighton beer where to start and they send you here. The Evening Star has been pouring ale on Surrey Street since 1854. It was the birthplace of Dark Star Brewery back in the day, but that chapter is long closed. For nearly a decade now it has been a fully independent free house, and it is all the better for standing on its own.
Behind the bar you get 22 taps: seven lines of fresh cask, three still ciders, and twelve keg lines pulling from the best independent breweries in the UK, the Czech Republic and Bavaria. The bottled world beer fridge is one of the finest in any British pub, and it is a fixture in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide. In the back, the Sri Lankan kitchen The Lankan turns out kottu and curries with proper vegan options. Two minutes from the station, card only, always worth it.
The Urchin
Oysters and stout by the sea, the way it used to be done. Tucked off the Hove high street on Belfast Street, the Urchin brews its own beer in the basement under the name Larrikin, poured fresh by Australian head brewer Nick alongside a strong rotating craft selection. It is one of the biggest and most interesting beer offerings in the city.
The food is all shellfish and seafood, cooked simply and built to pair with what is on tap. Order the oyster stout with a plate of rock oysters and you will understand the whole point of the place in one mouthful. For beer lovers and seafood lovers both, this is the Hove destination.
The Comeback
The Rook Taproom
If you were around for the Brighton Beer Dispensary, you already know why this one matters. When it closed, it left a proper hole in the city's beer scene. The Rook is its revival, same steep Dean Street spot just off Western Road, now with a copper-tiled bar, a big rotating chalkboard and that green-and-oak feel that regulars missed.
Twenty-two lines, twenty keg and two cask, changing constantly, plus 150-plus cans and a serious wine list. It runs brewery takeovers, tasting nights, toad tournaments and record fairs, and its sister taproom the Independent does free Friday delivery you can collect here. No food, but there is a Robin Hood pizza and half of Western Road within stumbling distance. For a lot of Brighton drinkers this is simply the best taproom in the city.
The Hole in the Wall
Reputed to be Brighton's smallest pub, and you will believe it the second you squeeze in. Hidden away in Queensbury Mews just off the seafront beside the Metropole, it dates back to 1837, when it was the Queensbury Arms and fishermen were supposedly served their pints through a hatch in the wall so their catch did not stink out the room.
Reopened in 2021 by landlord Jim and quickly voted CAMRA Pub of the Year 2022, it punches so far above its size it is almost funny: up to 40 beers curated from far and wide, four cask, ten or so keg, plus real ciders and a proper back bar of spirits. There is a Toad in the Hole table for the traditional Sussex pub game. Tiny, warm, and one of the best beer stops in the city.
The Independent
Known to everyone in Hanover as the Indy, this is a passionately independent free house on the corner of Queens Park Road and Albion Hill. It runs a wall of 20 changing keg taps, three cask lines and a couple of still ciders poured straight from the cellar, plus its own in-house Moon brews and a fridge stacked with cans and bottles to drink in or take away.
It doubles as a craft beer shop with free local delivery across Brighton and Hove, and it is the sister venue to the Rook, so the two share a proper beer pedigree. Toad table, drawing club, good snacks and one of the friendliest crowds on the hill. If you are doing a Hanover crawl, start or finish here.
The Basketmakers Arms
A North Laine institution in the truest sense. This characterful Victorian corner boozer on Gloucester Road has kept the same soul while everything around it changed. The walls are covered in old cigarette and biscuit tins, and inside each one you will find notes, jokes and scribbled poems left by regulars over the years.
It is a Fuller's pub with eight handpumps serving Fuller's and Gales ales plus guests, kept properly, poured by staff who will happily let you taste before you commit. Cosy, buzzing, unpretentious and consistently good. Book if you want the Sunday roast, they do not hang about.
The Regency Tavern
Tucked between Russell Square and Regency Square a stone's throw from Churchill Square and the i360, the Regency Tavern is the most gloriously over-the-top pub in Brighton. One of only two pubs still standing that applied for the original beerhouse licence in the 1830s, it is now an explosion of brocade, gilt mirrors, cherubs, leopard print and chandeliers. Even the loos get in on it, all sparkling walls and mirror balls.
Traditional cask ales, international lagers and a genuinely good wine list, plus one of the better and more authentic Thai kitchens in the city. Warm welcome, proper character, and once you have found it you will wonder how you never knew it was there.
The Eddy
Known to everyone as the Eddy, the Edinburgh is a dark horse tucked up a side street about five minutes from Brighton station. Before the Signalman took the crown, this was the pub Brighton kept voting for: its own bio proudly notes Best Local 2023 and Best Pub 2024 at the BRAVOs, back to back.
Inside it is all wooden panels, deep blues and warm lighting, with bay windows that catch the afternoon sun at the front and cosy nooks towards the back. Family-run, dog friendly, and endlessly adaptable for a quiz, a film night, a big match or just a quiet pint. No kitchen, but you are welcome to order food in. One of the most reliably good locals in the city.
Haus on the Hill
Crowning the brutal climb up Southover Street, Haus on the Hill is the pub that best sums up what makes drinking in Hanover different from the rest of Brighton. It is Brighton Bier's neighbourhood pub, so you get super-fresh pours of their own award-winning range, made barely a mile away, alongside the finest German lagers and wheat beers and a rotating cast of guest ales and ciders.
Over twenty draught lines, a Good Beer Guide regular, Britpop on the speakers and one of the warmest welcomes on the hill. Get the roast on a Sunday, but book, because the locals got there first.
The Geese
Hanover's go-to boozer, and famous for one thing above all: bangers and mash. Hundreds of possible combinations, a row of gravies to pick from, and more variations than seems entirely reasonable. Sundays mean roasts, the rest of the week means pints and friendly faces.
It won Best Sunday Roast at the 2023 BRAVO Awards and draws people across the city for the food alone, yet still feels completely down to earth. A proper local that sums up why Hanover is the best neighbourhood in Brighton for a pub crawl.
The Cleveland Arms
Overlooking Blakers Park up in the Fiveways and Preston Park area, the Cleveland Arms is the definition of a Brighton community pub. Independent and family-run for over 30 years by Sarah and Jamie Davies, recently refurbished into a bright, cosy space that still feels like a proper local.
The Sunday roast is the draw: Sussex-bred sirloin, minted lamb shoulder, chicken supreme, pork belly or a squash and spinach wellington, all with proper roasties, seasonal veg and homemade gravy. It has picked up recognition from the BRAVO Awards and beyond. A neighbourhood pub that anchors its patch and keeps people coming back.
The Robin Hood
A neighbourhood favourite in Norfolk Square with a proper heart: all profits go to local charities and community groups. It topped the BRAVO best pub list in 2025 and has been one of the city's most consistently loved community pubs for years.
Stone-fired pizzas including vegan options, fresh sausage rolls from the Brighton Sausage Co, tasty bar snacks, regular quizzes, live music and cracking annual street parties. Warm, welcoming, and the kind of place people cross the city to drink in.
The Eagle
A backstreet North Laine pub with a rotating craft beer lineup, a relaxed crowd and one of the best food arrangements in the city. The resident kitchen is Namo Eat, run by Bookie and her all-female Thai team, and it has built a genuine cult following.
Order at the bar, grab a booth at the back, and go for the khao soi, the pad Thai or the mango and prawn salad. Portions are generous, half the menu is vegan or vegetarian, and if you over-order they will box up your leftovers. Some of the most exciting cooking in Brighton is happening in this pub kitchen.
The Fortune of War
Brighton's most distinctive seafront pub, built straight into the arches below the promenade with an interior shaped like the upside-down keel of a ship, all rope handrails, bells and dark wood. It has a cult following among surfers, seafront regulars and anyone who knows a pint with the sea framed in the arch window is one of the better things this city offers.
Live music, late nights in summer and a beer garden right on the beach. There is genuinely nowhere else quite like it.
The Ladies Mile
Ten minutes out in Patcham sits a genuine 1930s Art Deco gem. Built in 1935 as the community heart of the Ladies Mile estate, it has a stained-glass canopy, a curved bar spanning the full width of the room and an interior lovingly kept across the decades. Part of the Golden Lion Group alongside the Cricketers.
The kitchen is run by Bartley Kitchens, doing pub classics with a modern twist, BBQ coffee beef short rib, butter chicken curry, alongside traditional roasts with homemade Yorkshires. The Sunday roast won Best Sunday Lunch at the 2024 BRAVO Awards. Family garden with a play area, dog friendly, sport on the screens, quizzes and community events. Run by the same family for over 20 years.
The Wick Inn
Step into this Victorian classic in Hove and you get old-school green tiles, a central island bar and the hum of proper conversation. The family-run Thai kitchen is the star, widely rated as some of the best Thai food in Brighton and Hove, open until late with cracking vegan options, poured alongside Sussex ales and craft beers from further afield.
Upstairs is the Speakeasy, a hidden prohibition-style cocktail bar open Friday and Saturday nights and bookable for parties. Add a weekly pub quiz, live jazz on Wednesdays and Thursday poker and you have one of Hove's most genuinely loved locals.
The Prince Albert
You will spot the Prince Albert by the John Peel mural on the outside wall, and that tells you everything. This converted three-storey townhouse at the top of the North Laine, moments from the station, is one of the last proper music pubs left in Brighton, and it knows it.
Independent and family-run, it leans indie, punk and rock, with bands playing upstairs in a room small enough that you are practically on stage with them. Down in the bar it is gig posters, scuffed floors, live jazz on a Sunday lunchtime and roasts served till nine. A firm favourite with students, musicians and anyone who cares about live music in this city.
The Brunswick
One of the best grassroots live music pubs on the south coast. The Brunswick books hundreds of shows a year across two rooms, running seven days a week and covering everything from jazz to indie to blues, alongside comedy, theatre and more.
Great beer, a crowd that genuinely cares about the music, and the buzz of a proper venue rather than a pub with a stage bolted on. An anchor of the Hove scene and well worth the trip from central Brighton.
Brighton's best Sunday roasts in 2026
Brighton takes its roasts seriously. The 2026 BRAVO Best Sunday Roast went to Embers in the Lanes for the second year running. Beyond that, the Signalman with Big Sam's Kitchen is one of the most talked-about roast destinations in the city, the Geese in Hanover took the 2023 roast title, the Cleveland Arms is a Fiveways family favourite, and the Ladies Mile in Patcham won Best Sunday Lunch back in 2024 and remains rock solid.
Where to drink by neighbourhood
Brighton craft beer: the best pubs for serious beer drinkers
Brighton has one of the strongest craft beer scenes outside London, and these are the pubs that prove it. The Evening Star is the essential first stop, an independent free house with 22 taps and a world beer fridge among the best in the country. The Rook revives the much-missed Brighton Beer Dispensary with 22 rotating lines just off Western Road, and its sister taproom the Independent in Hanover pours 20 keg lines and doubles as a beer shop. The Hole in the Wall squeezes up to 40 beers into Brighton's smallest pub, the Urchin brews its own Larrikin range in the basement, the Basketmakers keeps eight well-kept handpumps, and Haus on the Hill runs twenty-plus lines led by Brighton Bier.
Keep exploring: Brighton Events Guide 2026, Brighton Nightlife Guide 2026, Brighton Hidden Gems and Best Restaurants in Brighton 2026.
Best Pubs in Brighton 2026, written and published by ImJustBrighton. BRAVO results verified from the official 2026 results at brightonrestaurantawards.co.uk. Pub details verified against official pub websites and CAMRA listings. Last updated July 2026
