Horatio’s Bar

I love Horatio’s! It’s a great place to head for the start of a girls’ night out or even a Hen Do. It’s right down the end of the Palace Pier and it’s a laugh. Head down for weekend karaōke or one of their promo nights. Good fun vibe and totally tacky. But I love it!

Whilst Brighton has more than it’s fair share of great bars and authentic pubs, it also has it’s fair share of god damn awful ones. Located at the end of the Palace Pier, Horatio’s would definitely fall into the latter category.
The reasons? The style is astonishingly bad — all brass fixtures, dark wooden furniture and faux-​seaside décor — and the ambience isn’t much better. In the day, there’s often football and rugby matches played at loud volume on the gigantic TV screen whilst in the evenings, there’s usually bad karoake or naff live music. To add insult to injury, the drinks are overpriced and the only clientele are sun-​burnt tourists intent on getting wasted.

When we have visitors down who want to have a walk on the pier, we always end up in here and I don’t mind it that much — especially in the summer when you can sit outside and enjoy the rays.
Its in no way a traditional kind of establishment but it is located on the pier so what do you expect?
My friend went through a phase of wanting to sing kareoke every weekend so we used to end up here most Friday nights. You do get quite a lot of people taking their kareoke quite seriosly in here and I wouldn’t advise laughing at them or you might well get a gold soverign’d fist in your eye!
A really good laugh though after a few drinks.

Horatio’s, the bar at the end of Brighton Pier, is one of the most awful places in Brighton to go for a drink. There are so many reasons as to why Horatio’s is so god-​awful, but in this case the obvious is probably the best place to begin: it’s on the end of the Palace Pier, not exactly Brighton’s hot spot of cultural activity, attracting more tourists than anything else. No self-​respecting Brightonian would be seen dead in here: leave it to the tourists.
Beyond Horatio’s terrible placement, which also means it’s surrounded by gale force winds most of the year round (making smoking impossible), it seems to employ no effort at all to make itself more than just a place tourists think is cool. The décor is the worst kind of faux-fisherman’s pub, and the drink prices are hiked up the whazoo! On top of that, the drinks selection may as well be from a Yates: there is nothing here beyond overpriced, watered down spirits, alcopops and the ubiquitous lagers.
I think Horatio’s tries to sell itself on its novelty value, and it certainly seems to achieve in that regard, sucking in tourists for the simple ‘drink on the end of the Pier’ experience. It’s not as good or cool as it sounds. Add ongoing and terrifyingly drunk and bad karaōke, and I can’t imagine a more rubbish evening out. Don’t go, let the tourists get blown off the Pier.

Heratio’s is a proper laugh, take it with a pinch of salt (and the tequila and lemon to go with it) and you’ll be completely fine.
It has all the makings of a Weatherspoons and Yates but only because this has something it has bestowed upon itself. Make shift grandeur in the form of brass railings and ornate lighting doesn’t hide for too long the fact that this is a raucous and rowdy place.
But all in the name of good fun.

Ah, Horatio’s. Not exactly classy, this is a place full of bad carpets and worse karaōke.
At the end of Brighton Pier, it’s simply a big room full of tables and some often glum looking people.
However, it can also be a lot of fun to visit for a spot of karaōke at the weekend, either as a participant or just to watch and giggle.