The Bear

The bear attracts a mix of students and Lewes road locals and follows traditional pub principles, rather than trying for gimmicks or chic tactics.
This makes it a great place to get away from the party night of Brighton and have a proper no nonsense pub night out. The tables and area partitions are all dark wood and everything is very pubby in appearance. they have a dart board hung and a selection of board games if you want to pass a quieter night to jenga or suchlike.
You can also take advantage of some pretty good drinks deals, offered to lure in the students. They have also gone down the big screen TV for footie fans path and this makes it a good/​bad venue on such nights depending on your preference.
The garden is quite nice and even though the pub is right in the middle of a busy road area of Brighton, it manages to remain pleasant and insulated form the street.
I never drank in here that often when I lived in the area, but on the occasion I did I always left in a good mood.

Located towards Natal Road and Brighton University, this is a weird mix of old man pub and student hang out.
I used to come here quite often for a pub quiz that used to be held for only £1 entry, but after failing to win (or come close) in a dozen or so attempts, I stopped coming back.
However, since then The Bear has developed a reputation for showing football, mainly on account of the ceiling high screen that they have purchased. I came down to check out Spurs vs Chelsea and was quite impressed.
Unfortunately The Bear isn’t the biggest pub so I struggled to see beyond my pint glass, even miss Gareth Bale’s wondergoal.

The Bear is one of the many pubs in the Vogue Gyratory area, and one of the poorer choices for a place to drink in the area. Not that it’s really that bad, it’s just a bit of a football pub: lots of big TVs, plenty of lagers, not much else really. Behind all that, there is actually quite a nice pub set-​up, with a very nice beer garden, plenty of nice places to sit, and a relatively pleasant atmosphere. If only it wasn’t so football orientated!
As you can probably gather from above, I’m not much of a football fan, and it doesn’t stand me in good stead here. There’s TV’s everywhere, and there’s always football or some other sport showing: do people not go to pubs to chat to each other anymore? Anyway, don’t want to use this opportunity to rip into football-​people… I’m just not the obvious person to enjoy this kind of establishment.
It’s a shame, because it’s quite nice inside, besides all the football stuff. The smoking garden is lovely, the drinks are not too expensive (although they are all lagers)… It’s all very nice! It is a bit studenty, but foregiveably so: if only it weren’t such a football pub, I’d come here more often.

The Bear pub is a good local pub if you’re a student as it’s conveniently located along Lewes road — a popular area for student housing. Saying that. it does attract some older people as well.
It’s not exactly the most lively or outgoing of pubs, but it’s very pleasant and has a laid back and almost cosy atmosphere. It is also fun to go to in the summer as it has a sweet outdoor seating area. The prices are low and they have various student deals going on drinks as well as a happy hour. The interior is fairly standard for a pub in Brighton with a splash of funk and colour on the walls with wooden tables and seats. Overall it’s not the flashiest of pubs, and not somewhere I’d recommend if you’re only in Brighton for a night or two but it’s a good place to go to for a few drinks in the middle of the week and if you’re a student it’s definitely worth a visit or two and will soon become your local…

This a great pub to watch the football, especially the champions league as they have to sky boxes. We sometimes spend the whole sunday there watching the footy in the day then doing the quiz at night. They owners are friendly and don’t try and overcharge you. It’s just nice to have pub like this that isn’t part of a big chain

The Bear has a nicely balanced crowd of locals, students and young professionals, which thrives on its lively atmosphere, often blaring music out the doors and into the street of a weekend. It’s a Sunday well spent to saunter down early afternoon for breakfast then drink Bloody Marys until the quiz starts in the evening. You may not be able to recall stored information to win said quiz, but it’s ever so fun to lose.

The Bear is has a lot of history and has been running since the early 18^th century and from the outside looks like a very olde worlde type establishment. However the most recent managers have turned the pub into quiet a studenty place, which is probably increased the turnover no end as the Bear is the first pub on the walk back from Lewis Road Campus, as well as being within the area with the highest student population of Brighton.
That said its not so studenty that it makes it unbearable to enter inside without a NUS card, the staff are very friendly and the venue still has a lot of it traditional features making it nice and cosy.

Often to be heard blaring music onto Lewes Road during a weekend night, The Bear Inn is a student favourite in Brighton. It’s not the prettiest pub in town, but there’s always a great atmosphere and the right combination of cosiness and liveliness. With friendly staff and good drinks prices there’s not much not too like about this place — although it’s not gonna give the best pubby pub experience ever, if offers all a student could need!

A cosy, studenty boozer in the heart of the Lewes Rd student ghetto. Despite the high percentage of students among the clientele, it still maintains integrity as a decent traditonal pub, and maintains a healthy percentage of older customers.
Drinks are good value with plenty of student deals available, and there are plenty of games to while away a drunken hour.
The Bear is a proper pub, with red carpets and wooden seating, and ever-​friendly staff. Maybe not the most sophisticated place ever, but it has everything you need in a good local.

In my opinion Lewes Roads best pub in terms of having good clientele, good selection of drinks and entertainment to please. The pub quiz is really challenging with a distinct advantage going to the older clientele who will know some questions that are from the 70’s and 60’s era. However, we as students did ourselves justice by finishing 3^rd.
The areas to play pool are a bit cramped which is annoying because it ruins the game if you can’t play properly. Another problem I think is that I wish the Pub was a little bit bigger but you can’t blame them for that.
I have always had a great time in this pub which i cannot say for others in the local area so well done the Bear!

Having been re-​painted and re-​designed to look like an attractive strawberry and cream pudding in pub form, «The Bear» is a good generally awesome pub for anyone in the Lewes road area, offering a few cheap drinks, darts, board games, a nicely stocked Jukebox and comfortable heated garden.
Always friendly, warm and chatty, the owner of The Bear clearly enjoys his job, and is often a pleasure to chat to. The rest of the staff mirror and encourage the bears good honest pub-​ie atmosphere. On Sundays, there is a highly recommendable and recommended pub quiz (with prizes!) that frequently draws in large crowds of hopeful general knowledge lovers. Questions are across all kinds of fields, and often mix things up with picture rounds and timed, big point winning questions. While not always asking the most exciting or knowable questions, to my mind its the best pub quiz in Brighton for how it combines all its winning qualities together into a two or so hour burst of frenzied quiz-​erie!
What stops it from stealing a fifth star is the disappointing variety in cheap drinks… Anything other than Carlsberg, Strongbow or Harvey’s will set you back about £1 extra. And while the garden is nice, spacious well sheltered and heated, the indoor seating isn’t quite as comfy as it could be, unless you can get to a booth.+
Very minor complaints of an otherwise fantastic student friendly pub!

The Bear is a proper student pub due to its location on the route out of town to the two unis and in the middle of the studentsville that surrounds the Lewes Road area. Having said that’s its got a pretty traditional exterior and the interior has been jazzed up slightly with a few funky coloured wall and sofas. Its been a boozer since the early 1900s and is the only pub in Brighton that old to still have its original name.
Being that a lot of its clientele are student they have lots of cheap booze and you can get Carlsberg or a Strongbow for £2.30 all the time. The menu offers the usual pub grub as well a combo sharers and pizzas at bargain prices.

An old friend used to run this pub for a bit and we visited recently to partake in the sunday pub quiz, and the place was rammed. The clientele is the same as ever; a mixture of students and locals and the décor is suitably average. The pool table is still there and it’s a handy stop off for those on their way to/​from university/​pub crawl (easily confused).