Pub Heritage Lewes Arms
Pub Heritage Group have recently carried out a regrading of Real Heritage Pubs - click here for full details
East Sussex - Lewes
Three star - A pub interior of exceptional national historic importance
Listed Status: II
1 Mount PlaceLewes
BN7 1YH
Tel: (01273) 473152
Email: hello@lewesarms.com
Website http://lewesarms.co.uk
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thelewesarms
Real Ale: Yes
Lunchtime Meals: Yes
Evening Meals: Yes
Nearby Station: Lewes
Station Distance: 550m
Public Transport: Near Railway Station (Lewes) and Bus Stop
Bus: Yes
View on: Whatpub
Rebuilt in the early nineteenth century, the Lewes Arms is a superb three-room pub. The front door declares ‘Lewes Arms’ in an etched glass panel and leads through into a passageway, with a hatch to the servery. Pride of place goes to the two right-hand rooms, the front one being a small snug, that behind rather larger. The left-hand room, which houses a rare example of the toad-in-the-hole game, is an amalgamation of two rooms in the mid-1950s: the tiny one at the front was known as the smoking room behind which was a games room. The fittings are hard to date. The snug has a curved bar counter which may be interwar but probably not older: oddly, it also has a blocked doorway, now straddled by the bench seating.
Rebuilt in the early 19th century, the superb pub has three rooms. The front door has an old 'Lewes Arms' etched glass panel and a passageway, with a hatch to the servery, runs to the rear where there are steps to a smoking terrace. On the right is the snug. This tiny room has a bare wood floor, old curved counter at least 70 years old with a modern top, bare wall bench seating on two sides, only bar stools and no tables. Note the panelling which unusually runs horizontally, not vertically. There is a hatch in the passageway for service.
The small rear bar has a counter with old glazed panels in the partition above it so service is through a wide hatch. The wood panelling may be 1930s work, now painted deep pink. The left-hand room has dado panelling on the tiny front section and could have been amalgamated with former private quarters at some time to create a larger room. The rear section has a Victorian tiled and cast-iron fireplace and there is a toad in the hole game in the front section. An upstairs room, formerly two small rooms, has been brought into use in recent years and has a Victorian tiled and cast-iron fireplace and on the walls is some dray horse tack from Beards Brewery stables.
The Lewes Arms controversy - an entry on Wikipedia - details the protests by locals at Greene King's decision in December 2006 to remove Harveys Best Bitter from sale involving a 133 day boycott of the pub. The pub is famous for playing the most unusual of all pub games - Dwyle Flunking - just outside the pub. Also, an annual pea throwing contest, pantomime and poetry; and Lewes is famous for the largest celebration of Guy Fawkes Night with its 'Lewes Bonfire' which attracts 80,000 spectators.
Full Description
The small rear bar has a counter with old glazed panels in the partition above it so service is through a wide hatch. The wood panelling may be 1930s work, now painted deep pink. The left-hand room has dado panelling on the tiny front section and could have been amalgamated with former private quarters at some time to create a larger room. The rear section has a Victorian tiled and cast-iron fireplace and there is a toad in the hole game in the front section. An upstairs room, formerly two small rooms, has been brought into use in recent years and has a Victorian tiled and cast-iron fireplace and on the walls is some dray horse tack from Beards Brewery stables.
The Lewes Arms controversy - an entry on Wikipedia - details the protests by locals at Greene King's decision in December 2006 to remove Harveys Best Bitter from sale involving a 133 day boycott of the pub. The pub is famous for playing the most unusual of all pub games - Dwyle Flunking - just outside the pub. Also, an annual pea throwing contest, pantomime and poetry; and Lewes is famous for the largest celebration of Guy Fawkes Night with its 'Lewes Bonfire' which attracts 80,000 spectators.
