Inns, taverns and alehouses

King and Queen, Marlborough Place, 1934: The original King and Queen inn was a bow-fronted two-storey Georgian building on the site of a farmhouse which had gained a license in 1779 to cater for sporting events on the North Steine. The Inn was also the venue for Brighton's corn market until 1868 when the Corn Exchange opened.
Image reproduced with kind permission from Brighton and Hove in Pictures by Brighton and Hove City Council

Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990.  As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.

Inns, taverns and ale-houses in Brighton have been regulated from at least 1618, and by 1800 there were 41 establishments recorded in the town. The Beer Act of 1830 permitted any ratepayer to open a beer-house on payment of two guineas; in Brighton 100 were licensed in the first week, by 1879 the number of premises had grown to 424, and in 1889 there were reported to be 774 public houses in the town, one for every 130 residents. Now, in 1990, there are still 235 public houses in the borough {124a}, one for every 600 inhabitants, but former public houses are to be seen in many streets; North Road , for instance, had 10 ‘pubs’ in 1931. The greatest concentration is naturally in the town centre, but particularly around Brighton Station , St James’s Street and the Old Town . The road with most public houses is Ditchling Road which has seven; Lewes Road has six, while Church Street , St George’s Road and Southover Street all have five.

Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.

The following resource(s) is quoted as a general source for the information above: {6,15,83,123,300}

Comments about this page

  • I haven’t seen any mention of The Ranelagh Arms in High Street off St James Street. This was a Tamplins house in which I was born in 1931. My mother and father were May and Charles Stevens. Does anyone out there remember them? The pub is now a free house I believe.

    By Dorothy Green Nee Stevens (14/03/2008)
  • This is the only mention I’ve seen of The Ranelagh Arms. My parents Marjorie & George ran the pub from about 1970 to 1973, then it was closed by the Brewery. It was owned by Watneys at the time and they later re-opened! We moved from Brighton and never moved back, but I still have lots of family in the Brighton area. I’d be please to know if any of my parents’ friends are still around?

    By Wendy Marshall-Dilloway (28/03/2009)
  • Can’t comment on the ownership of the Ranelagh Arms but during a recent visit I found it to be a very friendly place with an excellent range of real ales (and staff who know a thing or two about them) with a guest beer and Harvey’s Best Bitter always on. There is frequent live music with the emphasis on blues.

    By Adrian Baron (06/08/2009)
  • There is also the Pedestrians Arms in Foundry Street which we used to go to every Saturday lunchtime after visiting the shops in Kensington Gardens etc. The elderly landlord used to kiss all the ladies goodbye when they left the pub and he would also give them a quick squeeze on the boobs. I think his name was Henry. Anyone else recall this?

    By Graham Sharp (26/04/2011)
  • My great, great grandfather ran the Jolly Fisherman at 35 Market Street (set back a bit). He was the 3rd landlord from opening in 1832 and ran it from 1854 to 1859. It had a special early opening time of 4am to serve the Market traders and was a Tamplin’s pub. There is a photo of the pub in 1938, but the last recorded landlord was in 1930. I presume it was demolished in the late ’30s or ’40s; can anyone throw any light on this?

    By john Snelling (13/03/2013)
  • i was very interested In th comment made by Dorothy Stevens, as I too was born here in 1960. My parents Graham and Daphne  Graham-Brown ran the Ranaleigh at the time, and I am looking forward to visiting again in March, and would be very interested in any history about the pub. 

    By Barbara Collins (16/02/2017)

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