Lewes Arms, Lewes

Superb pub with a surviving three-room layout and a central servery; fixtures and fittings include the old counter, wall panelling, and cast-iron fireplaces.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.