Steamworks Glynde, Lewes

Visited 24/01/25 Three hand pumps providing London Pride, Hophead and Long Man Best Bitter. Six keg beers available, Asahi, Grolsch, Cornish Orchards cider, Estrella, Long Man Crafty Blonde and a new one for me from Meantime, the Cutty Haze IPA. New venue for Steamworks, but as far as I know still 100% East Sussex station-based establishments. This one is in the station of Glynde, a mere 6 mins away on a train every hour from Lewes. This one feels less quaint than the long-standing venue in Seaford station. Indeed, that one, based on my visits, has an interesting cask and craft keg range whereas this one, whilst nice to have three well-kept cask ales, felt a bit less inventive with its range. The venue is accessed from the car park at the front of the station and provides direct access to platform 2 (need to cross to platform 1 if you are leaving it last minute to get a train back into Lewes and need to remember the trains are every hour). The bar counter is against the left-hand wall and has five tables of various size and styles in this side with a central brick column housing a log burner being the divider between this side and another similar sized area the other side (with slightly more but slightly smaller regular tables). The walls are adorned, not surprisingly, with lots of railway memorabilia. The venue was nicely occupied on my mid Friday afternoon visit and it felt like those here were here for the venue rather than imminently waiting a train. Given there is no other pub in Glynde (it's the Ram in West Firle or back into Lewes for the nearest watering hole other than here), it is a good addition to the area around here.

Nicely done conversion of this village station building, with a similar look to the traditional interior as at its older sibling in Seaford. It also opens at 10:00 so more of a café in early part of the day, but the bar was already operational when I arrived at 11:15. Mix of wooden furniture in the two rooms separated by the central fireplace (now occupied by a log-burner), with the counter at the end of the part with front entrance. Three cask ales on handpump: Bluebell best bitter (£4.60) and Session IPA from 360° plus Hophead.

This new-ish Steamworks bar had about 10 in during my late Friday afternoon visit, so it's showing early promise, with the Trevor Arms on the other side of the station still available for let after all these years. Unfortunately, I found a somewhat pedestrian beer range - Asahi Hophead & Pride, plus Long Man Best as your cask options, with nothing more exciting than an Asahi Pale Ale on the keg taps - the Seaford venue was definitely more interesting when I last visited. As a result, I didn't feel compelled to stay for too long.

Newly opened around Christmas time, Steamworks Glynde is the sister pub of Steamworks Seaford that has been doing a roaring trade for a number of years now. I visited here at lunchtime on a recent Saturday when it was very busy with diners, many of whom were lining their stomachs with the very reasonably priced (around £10) homecooked pub grub before jumping on the train to Falmer for a Brighton home game. This is actually a very good option for a few pre-match beers, especially because it’s in the old Glynde Railway Station ticket office so it’s a quick hop over to the other platform before two short stops to the AMEX. The serving counter is found on the left-hand wall where the three hand pumps were drawing Fuller’s London Pride and Grand Slam alongside Dark Star’s Hophead. There are also six or seven keg fonts, and a display box with cakes for those with a sweet tooth. The high tables around the bar area were all being used, but thankfully there was one free table to the right on the other side of a double sided chimney breast with burner that splits the bar in two. There’s wooden flooring throughout and the upper exterior walls are painted green with wainscotting below. The toilets are found behind the right-hand wall that has been expertly covered by the ends of old French wine boxes, a nice touch. Yes it was a bit cosy, but I enjoyed my pint of Pride and would jump off the train for another mid journey pint or two.