A relatively new addition to the busy Western Road, in the slightly anonymous stretch between Brighton and Hove town centres. It still has the larger-than-life effigy of a knight at first floor level giving away its former incarnation as 'The Temple’.

The interior of the pub is hard to categorise: it has multiple levels, and seems larger inside than you expect; the dark wood floor and balustrades with traditional pub furniture lend a traditional feel, but the extensive green-grey paintwork is more contemporary; and then there’s the overpowering (almost scary) wallpaper, which from a distance looks like it is covered in beer mats, but in reality just has a very bold pattern.

It seems to attract a young, slightly studenty crowd, though as with most places in Brighton it’s fairly mixed in terms of age profile (maybe there are lots of ageing students?).

Inside they serve a few real ales - Harvey’s and Adnam’s Broadside, both of which seemed well kept, as well as the usual lagers, wines and spirits and soft drinks. Service was efficient, but not especially friendly - there was a group of the bar staff’s friends at the counter, who were grabbing all the attention on our visit, I think.

There’s some outside seating on the pavement. The pub is not accessible - a few steps to get in, then more steps to get to both male and female toilets.

Overall, not a bad venue - I’m hovering between 3 and 4 stars, so other factors (noice etc) will determine which it gets on the day.

This is the former Temple bar. It was nice to see the front part of the pub open. I cannot recall when it was the Temple bar ever doing this. It certainly is a summer treat for the regulars.
The crowd was of good mixed ages. Staff friendly. They served Harvey’s bitter. There were other Real ales on.
The pub is spacious and clean, though if one looked hard enough it was possible to detect grim! Inside is a real working mans pub. No wine bar type feel. What did spoil it was the loud music. The staff bopped to the beats but it was too hard to hear a friend across the table.