InnBrighton opens first brewpub

InnBrighton, the Brighton & Hove-based multiple retailer, has opened its first brewpub on the site of its former Gloucester nightclub in Brighton.

Renamed the North Laine, it includes a state-of-the-art microbrewery offering a variety of cask ales including its new beer Laine’s Best, which will be sold at a promotional price equivalent to VAT and duty throughout October.

“This is an exciting project for us not only because we will be brewing our own beer for the first time, but because it is a significant regeneration of a fabulous old building and a transformation we hope will be welcomed by the city,” said chief executive Gavin George.

“The Gloucester nightclub was never that easy on the eye nor particularly popular with the local residents, and so we are pleased to have been able to put back something that is more in keeping with the aesthetic and vibrancy of the North Laine. Plus it’s good to be bringing a new pub to life when the trend generally in the UK has been the opposite over the last five years and more than 5000 pubs have been lost.

The North Laine is the third new venture for InnBrighton this year, following the opening of two London pubs, the Dissenting Academy in Newington Green and the Great Exhibition in East Dulwich. Last month its secured its fourth in the capital: the Bellevue on Battersea High Street.