The Cleveland Arms, Brighton
A typically bulbous Brighton seagull landed on a nearly table with a thud and eyed us malevolently. It was almost certainly one of the raucous squawkers that had woken me at some ungodly hour that morning.
By now it was early evening, and we were sitting outside the Cleveland Arms, contemplating the sloping green expanse of Blakers Park. I was seeing off, with some relish, what remained of my pint of Harvey’s Best.
It was getting chilly, so we moved inside. The seagull sidled away, evidently brassed off that we hadn’t left it so much as a crisp or peanut. Time for a Long Man American Pale Ale, perhaps. Or maybe just a half at this stage of the evening. (Not only is the APA heftily hopped; it weighs in at 4.8% abv.) Despite the “American” label, it’s brewed not far from here. One of the other regulars is Dark Star, which started in 1994 in a Brighton pub cellar, though it has now been bought by Fuller’s.
The building dates from the 1890s, and still harbours some handsome roundheaded stained-glass windows. Close to one of these is a lamp from the old Phoenix Brewery, once the home of Tamplin’s of Brighton until it was closed down by Watneys in 1973 – a survivor, along with the dartboard, the piano and a splendid Fuller, Smith & Turner’s mirror opposite the bar, from a revamp carried out by Jamie Davies when he took over the pub that his father John had run for 24 years. But their draught beers are still from Sussex, Jamie assured me.
So, it would seem, are the artists. No, not those kinds of artists but members of the Fiveways Artists Group, based just up the road from here. The pub’s Farrow and Balled walls provide an ideal backdrop for many an evocative painting, generally on a nautical theme.
As for the menu, it’s a mixture of the imaginative and the traditional. The “Harvey’s beer-battered” fish and chips were imaginatively presented – and all too quickly demolished. Sorry, Mr Seagull: there wouldn’t have been much left for you even if we had stayed outside.
Chris Arnot
27A Cleveland Rd, Brighton BN1 6FF: 01273 502396; clevelandarmsbrighton.co.uk