A Room With A View

About A Room With A View

A Room With A View sits at 41 Marine Parade, in a Grade II listed Georgian building on the raised seafront road just east of the Palace Pier. It faces straight out over the beach, which is where the name comes from, and it has been run as an independent guest house for well over a decade at the point where central Brighton gives way to Kemptown.

Rooms run from singles up to deluxe kings, and the range of outlooks is wide: the best have their own balcony over Marine Parade with an uninterrupted view of the Channel and the pier, while cheaper rooms sit at the back and are noticeably quieter. Fittings are more contemporary than the Georgian exterior suggests, with Nespresso machines, flat-screen televisions, minibars and free wifi as standard, and there is a residents' lounge and dining room on the lower floors.

Breakfast is cooked to order and consistently singled out in reviews, and the small scale of the place means staff have time to help with restaurant bookings and directions. The single biggest practical advantage over almost every hotel in the city is the car park: there is space for around ten cars, free to guests who book direct, which in a district almost entirely covered by resident permits is worth a good deal more than it sounds.

The location suits people who want to be on the seafront but away from the West Street noise. The Palace Pier is a five-minute walk, the Royal Pavilion and The Lanes about ten to fifteen, and Kemptown's independent shops and restaurants start just up the hill. There is no lift, and the building has the steep staircases of its period, so the guest house publishes which rooms are on which floor - worth checking before you book.