The Basketmakers Arms - Popular Brighton pub up for sale

The Dowd family have owned the Gloucester Road venue since the late 1980s but now Peter ‘Blue’ Dowd is looking to retire.

Blue said: “It is sad that we have eventually come to retirement age but it happens.

“I very much hope that the next custodian of the Basketmakers respects its history and values its loyal customers.”

The Basketmakers has been a mainstay of the North Laine pub scene and has regularly been featured in the Good Pubs Guide and Camra’s pub guide.

It’s also known for long-standing tradition of stashing notes inside the vintage tobacco tins which adorn the pub’s walls.

In the past 26 years these notes have included declarations of love, limericks, and general drunken wisdom.

The pub is on sale through Fleurets estate agents.

Kate Dowd, now an Associate with Fleurets, has played a part in the success of the Basketmakers.

She is the mother of the pub’s manager Joe and Blue’s ex-wife.

Together they took on the pub in the year they married in 1987.

She ran the kitchen for around eight years from 1991. The couple later parted and Kate left the business in 2006.

Kate said: “Both personally and as a firm we are very proud to be offering this amazing pub to the market.

“Many customers see this pub as being an integral part of their own life story and will be looking forward to its next chapter.”

To view the pub’s sale details click on this link.