A history

This building on the corner of North Road and Gardner Street was probably built as a pub. As early as 1845, it is listed in street directories as the Dorset Arms.

Since the beginning of the century, it was frequented by journalists and newspaper staff from the nearby Evening Argus building, before this was relocated at Hollingbury in the early 1990s.

Now called the Dorset Street Bar, the change in character of this pub from a working environment to a part of Brighton’s cafe society is indicative of the change that has taken place in the larger area of the North Laine, formerly the town’s main industrial area.

Comments about this page

  • I remember the Dorset Arms as a pub when I was growing up. My dad used this pub I had to meet him there on a Saturday a lot of people from Upper Gardener Street market would go in there when the market closed the market was fall of stalls then you would have been lucky to have got one. They sold everything from furniture clothes and fruit and veg.

    By Kathleen Catt (03/02/2011)
  • I remember the Dorset Arms as a pub. During the summer of 1986 (aged 18) I hitchhiked down south from the north west of England and ended up working as a hotel porter in Brighton (Norfolk Resort Hotel). The Dorset Arms became my local for my time in Brighton and I remember many a good night drinking and laughing in this pub. It was sad to see it had changed to a coffee bar during a recent visit to Brighton.

    By Chris Bate (31/03/2015)

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