Photos and articles about Brighton and Hove in the time of coronavirus. See our collection and add your own!

Kensington: then and now

The Kensington, Kensington Gardens – now called Garden’s (sic) but quite why they have chosen to use an apostrophe in the new name is a mystery!

The Kensington then
Image reproduced with permission from Brighton History Centre
The Kensington now
Photo by Mike Snewin

Comments about this page

  • Ah, the Kensington – so that was its ‘real’ name! I only ever used to know this place as the Yahoo pub because the clientele reminded me of Swift’s. All the same it was a great boozer not many years ago, somewhere ANYone at all could feel comfortable. They threw away the mould when they cast its last landlord; one night when I was there he distributed a packet of clothes pegs around the bar by attaching them to people’s clothing as they passed or when they weren’t looking. What a shame it’s now just like every other bar in Brighton. Sadly missed.

    By Nicky (08/01/2005)
  • Nicky is right, this classic back street boozer has now been given a silly name and is festooned with hanging baskets of greenery, just like every other bar in Brighton, as Nicky says.

    By Adrian Baron (06/06/2007)
  • The Gardens has changed hands again and is now The White Rabbit.

    By Leo (06/02/2008)
  • My local for many a long year when the Caston Family ran it. It was smashing pub then, and everyone was made to feel welcome. John Caston worked as a photographer for the Argus. From memory, it was him who took most of the pictures for The Argus, when the old Hove Town Hall was ablaze.

    By Geoff Wells (27/12/2009)
  • I was a frequent visitor here during my student days in the mid ’70s. I liked that it was a very ordinary, unpretentious pub, with bar billiards and a pool table. Sounds like it’s very different now.

    By Steve (10/11/2015)
  • I was a barmaid at the Kensington in the mid 1970s and remember John Caston and his German Shepherd dog which would sometimes be behind the bar in the evenings. Fabulous times watching pool players at their peak. We had a couple of truly great teams. I learned to play pool in this bar and became Captain of the B Team for a while. Loved working there and it was always packed. Good times!

    By Louise (01/10/2021)
  • I drank at the kenny and had some amamzing times there,the landlord was called Mikey, he was an ex care worker of some type. I remember he could sign if that jogs any memeories.

    By sean currey (15/04/2023)
  • I recall this pub in the early sixties when they had a parrot who liked crisps and used to dunk them in his water container before eating them. Nice place.

    By Trevor Smith (06/12/2023)

Add a comment about this page

Your email address will not be published.