I don't get to go to the hand in hand very much nowadays as I don't live that close; when I lived between Queen's Park and Kemptown I went there quite a lot. However, I did have a nice pint of Kemptown a few months ago; they were also represented at the Sussex Beer festival, so they are obviously still brewing which is good. I don't think they could turn into a trendy bar if they wanted to, although I'm sad to say the Burlington in kemptown turned into a 'trendy' Polar bar
I didn't know that about the landlord of the Greys, although the landlord changed a few years ago so it might be a different one. Hanover was a great place to live, I was sorry to leave.