Another day at the seaside - Bexhill and the Brickmaker's Alehouse

Last Friday I made my second visit to the coast this month, to the appropriately named Bexhill-on-Sea. I’d spent a considerable amount of time the previous evening, mulling over where to go on my Pub Friday day out. The intention was to visit a pub on CAMRA’s National Historic Pub Inventory and working on the basis of easily reached by public transport and having an historic or characterful interior worth seeing, I’d drawn up a short list of eight pubs, in destinations as diverse as Dulwich, Beckenham Junction, Chelsfield, Crawley and Bexhill-on-Sea.

I opted for the latter seaside town, with the initial aim of visiting an NI listed pub on the edge of Bexhill, called the New Inn. Whilst sorting out how to get to the pub, from Bexhill station, thoughts of another pub in the town came flooding into my head. The place I was thinking of was the Brickmaker’s Alehouse, a converted former shop and showroom for a local brick manufacturer. In November 2019, the Brickmaker’s opened its doors as Bexhill's first micro-pub, offering no fewer than five cask ales and four ciders. The drinks are served direct from casks kept in a chilled cabinet adjacent to the bar, with canned beers and ciders, also available.

Now comes the interesting part, as the Brickmaker’s is owned and run by run by two local CAMRA members, one of whom happens to be a former chairman of the local West Kent branch. This was back in the late 1980’s and, as in many areas of life, events happen, people move on and go their separate ways. In the case of both Robin and myself it was each starting a family, but there were also changes of job, house and all the other things that happen to people over the course of a lifetime.

Fast forward to the end of the last decade, when I discovered that Robin was planning to open a micro-pub in Bexhill, where he was now living. Several local member had visited the Brickmaker’s Alehouse and returned with glowing reports, but it wasn’t until late last year that I bumped into Robin again, when he turned up at the Nelson Arms, in Tonbridge, for the Kent CAMA Pub of the Year presentation. The topic of his pub came up in the conversation, and he seemed surprised, and possibly a little shocked that I hadn’t visited the Brickmaker’s, so that flash of inspiration I had the other evening, was quite appropriate.

Before writing about my visit, I ought to mention a family connection to Bexhill as, until relatively recently, Mrs PBT’s sister lived in the town, She and her late husband Brian had a large bungalow, on the edge of Bexhill that they had lovingly restored and enlarged over the years, but sadly, Eileen’s sister Lynne’s husband, passed away in March 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic. A year or so after, Lynne moved to Uckfield to live with her youngest daughter, in an annexe attached to the side of her property.

As a family, we would normally drive down to Bexhill, for catch-up visits, so it made a refreshing change letting the train do the driving instead. The journey of just under an hour from Tonbridge, involves taking the Hasting’s service, before changing trains at St Leonard's Warrior Square, just one stop before the seaside town. I knew that the Brickmaker’s was close to the town centre, the seafront, and also Bexhill station, but with an hour or so to kill, before the pub’s scheduled 2pm opening, the question arose as what to do in the meantime?

A short stroll down to the seafront provided the answer, in the form of the De La Warr Pavilion, a grade 1 listed building, overlooking the sea. This striking, futuristic-looking building was the result of an architectural competition initiated by Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr, after whom the building was named. The Earl was a committed socialist and also Mayor of Bexhill, when he persuaded Bexhill council to develop the site as a public building The specification for the new building included the requirement an entertainment hall to seat at least 1,500 people; a 200-seat restaurant; a reading room; and a lounge. The competition was won by architects, Erich Mendelsohn, and Serge Chermayeff, with their striking  international design, which is one of the first major Modernist public buildings in Britain.

Construction of the De La Warr Pavilion began in January 1935, and the building was opened in December of the same year by the Duke & Duchess of York, who later became King George VI & Queen Elizabeth. Decades later, and with the privations of World War II in between, the building was starting to show serious signs of neglect. Various suggestions and campaigns for its future followed but following a £6 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Arts Council of England, work began to restore the building and turn it into a contemporary arts centre. In October 2005, after an 18-month long extensive programme of restoration, the De La Warr Pavilion officially reopened as a contemporary arts centre, encompassing one of the largest galleries on the south coast of England.

Well worth a look around then, and with some attractive paintings of local fishermen, nice views along the coast towards Eastbourne and Beachy Head, plus that much needed comfort stop, after the train coffee had worked its way through my system, what was not to like. The De La Warr also provided welcome shelter from the cold north-easterly wind that was blowing along the coast. Somewhere amongst several boxes of old photographs, are several of me as toddler, looking out to sea, taken from inside the pavilion, and date from a visit to the south coast, with my parents. I shall dig them out, when I’ve got a spare moment, as they must be about 65 years old.

Pleased after renewing my acquaintance with this iconic, modernist building, I headed back to the Brickmaker’s Alehouse, arriving there shortly after opening time. I managed to beat a group of cyclists to the bar, after they were delayed slightly by locking up their bikes, but I still wasn’t the first customer of the day. That honour went to the gent sat looking out of the front window, who asked me if was from the police, after witnessing me taking a couple of photos of the exterior. “Do I look like a policeman?” was my response, but leaving such possibilities aside, I strolled over to the bar, after first taking a look at the casks racked up inside the glass-fronted, chill cabinet.

After perusing the Brickmaker’s website, on my journey down to Bexhill, I’d already made my mind up as to which beers to go for, so after starting with a pint of Mallinson’s American SIPA, I moved on after to a glass of Abyss, from Neptune Brewery. Both beers, one a well-hopped, straw-coloured pale ale, whilst the other a smooth, easy-drinking, oatmeal stout, were in tip-top condition, kept at just the right temperature, and served direct from the cask, by gravity, it was like being in beer heaven.

I asked joint owner Martin, who I recognised from a photo on the website, whether his partner Robin would be in later, but as he wouldn’t be, I left one of my cards with Martin, and asked if he would give it to Robin, when he next saw him. I then made myself at home, on one of the high stools-posing tables. One of the pub regulars, a chap also called Robin, asked if he could join me. I nodded that he could, and we had an interesting chat about the pub, the local area, and places between Bexhill and Tonbridge, that we both knew.

There was an interesting crowd in the pub, that afternoon, with the cyclists in particular getting stuck into their ale. Several other customers also popped in to get their carry-out containers filled, either with beer or cider. I am not always a massive fan of micro-pubs, but this one certainly seemed to be doing everything right. In 2021 the Brickmaker’s won the CAMRA “Conversion to Pub Use” national award, and in both 2022 and 2023 was local CAMRA Branch Pub of the Year, plus Cider Pub of the Year runner up. My only gripe was the lack of food at the pub, as apart from nuts and crisps, that was it.