The Gardener's Arms, Lewes

This seemed to be a traditional little pub with ‘Normal for Lewes’ customers, long and thin with dartboard to the rear. Our crawl survivors congregated outside for the duration of our visit, overlooking a pleasant semi-pedestrianised road. I went for the Harvey’s Porter, £2.80 a half and nice. Certainly one for a crawl at the very least.

Agree with all the comments below (or at least the three that I are visible prior to my review). Would definitely add my vote with this being the best traditional pub in Lewes, or indeed the Lewes postal district). A pretty straightforward, quite small boozer, which is aided when the weather is a bit better by drinkers happily extending to the small space at the side of the venue or on the small pavement area out the front. The servery is against the left hand wall in the middle of the single, rectangular room, with stools around the bar and the prize table in the front window. There are some rather rustic wooden benches at the back of the pub, with a well worn and much trod upon red carpet on which site a couple of tables and some small wooden stools. Heavy red velvet curtains retain some of the musky odour in these nether regions of the pub, OK they are by the somewhat agricultural conveniences but that doesn’t really matter here. Pictures from bonfire of yesteryear adorn the walls along with a dartboard that barely seems it is useable where it resides unless there is a local version of the game where you throw diagonally at the board. The hand pumps sit on the side of the servers greeting you as you enter and deluding my visit the six offerings were the Pale Ale from Gun Brewery, the Valley Bitter from the Nether Valley Brewery, the MIA a hazy pale ale from Shiny Brewery, one of my favs, the plateau from Burning Sky, the goes without saying Harvey’s Sussex Best and a black Cherry Porter from Goldmark. Keg offerings (as they are relevant to some who quaff here) were Fosters, Guinness, K1664, a Scottish cider called Thirstly Cross. Been here many times over the last 10 years Lewes has been local to me at the weekends. This is a great pub and I will return year many more times hopefully.