I am totally useless as a source of local information. I can tell you almost nothing about the Hope Inn, on the West Quay (West Pier, it says on Google Maps, but to me the words West Pier will only ever denote a starling-inhabited wreck off the coast of Brighton).It looks - there's a photo of the exterior here - like an Art Deco style building, all curvy ocean-going liner-shaped white concrete. You have to look hard to see that though as it's almost entirely obscured by large square conservatories top and bottom, and some timber cladding for good measure.
To the left, the pink building is Sea House, which was also at one point an inn. I always quite fancied living there. And then further to the left, that low brick construction is part of the Fort
This sign I can only presume was an earlier or original one, though it might have come from another pub entirely, and it now hangs in the interior. In the lower conservatory, in fact. Where we were seated, finally, belatedly, celebrating No. 2 son's eighteenth birthday last night.
The Hope is a nice enough pub, quite food orientated. I've been there many times over the years - as long as twenty years, in fact, as it was quite a favourite of my father's. The food has always been fine, and the beer is certainly good, with a good selection or real ales including Harveys and London Pride which were both fine yesterday, and not too cold (being a bit of a philistine, I actually like my beer a bit too cold). The interior has lots of wood and is a bit nautical, but I suppose that's allowed, in context. Lovely wooden floors.
