A grand old building, very central, right close to the sea front. A hotel room with a window like this onto the park would cost a bomb.
I made the mistake of booking a hotel based on the map and the price. This isn't a hotel, and doesn't pretend to be a hotel. It is very much a hostel. Don't have a lot of recent hostel experience, but to me it looked a very good hostel. But of course pretty weird for a hotel.
They didn't have my booked room, so offered me this alternative, adding as an incentive to accept it that they would not put anyone else with me in the room. Never had that offered as a hotel feature before, but sure.
It was certainly very clean, but took some work to find lights that would work (had to plug the beds in, some worked, some didn't).
Can't beat the location, except if you are with a car. Brighton hates cars, and hates people with cars, and hates visitors with cars. Closest respectable parking was 15 minute walk away, and more expensive than Heathrow or downtown NYC. A decent walk from the station, but obviously not a problem for most hostel users.
Would I send my kids there with ten of their closest friends? Absolutely. (Though not sure I'd recommend Brighton for anyone any more.) Would I stay there again? Probably not.