The Lewes Arms, Lewes

Visited 04/10/24. First ticked on here on 01/12/18 and regularly returned to in between and since)! Cask choices Harvey's, Seafarers. Rosie's Pig rhubarb cider, HSB, Five Points XPA, Dark Star Hophead and the American Pale Ale. Plenty of decent keg choices, Guinness, Cornish Orchards cider, Fullers Frontier lager, London Cider W9, Verdant Light Bulb, Tiny Rebel Easy Livin, Cruz and Veltins Pilsner. I think this generally has the best ambience of all the Lewes venues and typifies Lewes pub drinking with the characters you are likely to encounter here. It is off the main drag and has a nice area to stand outside away from traffic. Inside the front bar where the taps and hand pumps and is a very cosy affair with just tall stools at the bar and a banquette along the window wall. The bar counter also serves into the back bar area which is a little larger and has a mixture of tables and chairs and a corner banquette. There is even a small serving hatch that makes it easy for those standing in the corridor to get a drink without having to pop into the front or back bars. The other side of the hallway (to call it that) is another cosy room with densely packed tables and chairs. There is live folk music in here every Thursday evening that packs the venue out. There is a really top-notch pizza offering here that makes it unquestionably the best place to get a pizza in Lewes. The bar staff can be a little surly on occasions and so I do recognise the comment made by the, relatively recent, previous reviewer on here.

Seems to be a theme in this town, the barmaid here out the front chatting up a smoker and uninterested in working. After 5 minutes of waiting at the unattended bar gave up as a bad job! Shame as it looks an interesting building

Official site of The Lewes Arms - www.lewesarms.co.uk

Official site of The Lewes Arms - www.lewesarms.co.uk

The Lewes Arms is a multi-roomed town classic with a bit of a roof garden going on as well. There were 3 ales available on my visit - Harvey's, Hophead (both £4.30) and HSB. Unfortunately, I wasn't entirely convinced about the quality of my pint which is a bit of a shame given the status of the place. Nevertheless, I'd return, as there's definitely a good feeling about the pub and I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt this time.

A little difficult to find if you don't know the town, which I didn't, but well worth the effort. A fine looking pub with a curved exterior, traditional and multi-roomed inside. Its a Fullers owned but the beers were reasonably varied, London Pride, Gales HSB and the affiliated Darkstar Hophead, along with Adnams Ghost Ship and the almost obligatory (in Lewes) Harveys Sussex Best leaving two vacant handles. A very nice pub indeed.

Not the easiest of pubs to find but when'ever I decide to have a crawl around Lewes I always start off here. Very quirky pub once inside with several rooms in which the bar is proberly the smallest of the rooms.Always a good selection of beers on offer plus they sell a selection of Fullers bottled beers including one of my favourites Bengal Lancer. I've not tried the food but it seems very popular. One of the better pubs in Lewes.

sorry, six handpumps, the ones I don't recall were presumably gk. 1 July 2008 I appreciate that locals & regulars may still feel that the pub's heart is not, & may never be, the same since the famed ‘battle of Lewes' but we certainly celebrated that warming people-power victory over greedy king and, I have to say, the pub seemed no different on Sat than our 1st (pre-battle) visit in '06. The small front bar was busy & chatty, the room to the left had space to sit at pine tables/benches or play ‘toad-in-the-hole' or darts (although both would have been dangerous to the trio who had picked the adjacent table) and I noticed a 3rd room behind the bar which I hadn't realised was there. Nice feeling to the pub, no sign of temporary undesirables mentioned in protest period reviews, I'd like to see the pub regaining a more accurate BITE rating and that will require some, who legitimately marked it down, to return and reassess the place. Four handpumps, 3 diff Harveys beers plus Black Rat cider.