LEWES LIFTS THE SPIRITS

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When you’ve just been called out on your blog for being grumpy it’s a bonus if the next post comes from Lewes.

I don’t think I’ve ever left Harvey’stown without a spring in my step.  Oh, there was this.

Looking back at my last post from here, I could basically just copy and paste what I wrote then; wonderful architecture, unexpected hills, Proper Pubs, always arrive by train.

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Gorgeous
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Proper Books from the 15th Century Bookshop, but no 1975 GBG
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Future micro on the right

So why is it so underrated ? Or is it ?

The shops were busy, the rest of town less so. Are people scared of hills ?

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Do NOT drive up here

Perhaps they’re saving themselves for the Hawkwind evening in the Con Club.

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Great stuff

You’d think the GBG must have featured all the trad pubs in Lewes by now, so it’s a joy to find the Lansdown isn’t a micro/bottle shop.

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Proper solid benches your beer won’t slide off

There’s a tree in the Lansdown Arms, always a good sign, but this is as far from the Combermere as you can get.

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A treehouse on that tree will soon become a separate GBG entry, mark my words

Actually, apart from the accents and the preference for rugby over football it wasn’t that dissimilar to Wolves’ finest, with displaced smokers coming and going and students and Old Boys mingling.

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Pashmina or scarf ? You decide.

And, like the Combermere, you get beers that aren’t from the local craft brewery next door.

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No idea what’s on the fourth handpump

This time the Gun Pale was a great choice; cool and chewy (NBSS 3.5). So it should be, they make good beers.

But even with all that great cask, some folk at the station still go for the posh foreign lager.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

25 thoughts on “LEWES LIFTS THE SPIRITS”

  1. Lewes, great place! Beautiful surroundings, good selection of pubs. Never been to the Landsdown, but I’m sure you’ve covered my other favourites there in previous posts.

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  2. Smashing place Lewes. Interesting and impressive Church too. If I was to be over critical, it’s sort of in it’s own time warp of un-reality, just all a bit twee and not a ‘real’ place. Some good antique/collectables/book shops, but all a bit pricey. Never went in any of the pubs because we drove from Brighton. Like I said elsewhere, Gun make some decent beers.

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  3. Yes, always travel by train to Lewes. Glad you found the Landsdown. We were in just over a year ago and enjoyed our visit, although I can’t tell you what was consumed.

    Love Lewes, having worked there for three years in a previous existence. Always good to go back, even if the window display in that bookshop hasn’t changed in all that time!

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    1. Yes, ALWAYS the train for Lewes.
      It’s ten years since I’ve been there and shall probably soon decide between late spring or autumn.

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  4. Oh,don’t get me wrong young Martin – there’s nothing wrong in being a cranky old git and the older I get the crankier git I’m becoming.
    Why,only this morning I let some incompetent fool at my bank have both barrels of withering,sarcastic bile.
    And after three weeks without a drink and a fag I’m ready to rip someone’s face off if they so much as raise an eyebrow.
    But I do think you’ve got to know the time and place when to unleash the beast mithering away under the surface.
    Anyway,you’re right.Lewes is a lovely spot.Often popped in there for lunch when we have business on the coast.
    Even a grumble of curmudgeons ( probably a better collective noun than clutch ) couldn’t find fault with it.

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    1. P P-T,
      “A grumble of curmudgeons couldn’t find fault with it” – yes, and that’s why I’ve just said that I will probably soon decide between late spring or autumn for a day in Lewes.
      It’s even better, but dearer, than Uttoxeter.

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    2. You’re right, of course.

      But just because a pub looks lovely, serves a good roast and an OK beer is no reason for me to warm to it. Otherwise we may as well give in and convert all our pubs to Brunning & Priceys.

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      1. I suppose it depends whether you’d rather have a crap local pub that no-one goes to or a Brunning&Price gastropub where you can at least get a reasonable pint and a sarnie if you’re peckish.
        It’s a bit like the snobbish view some people have of ‘Spoons while Timbo merrily banks another million quid a week doing what those people think is rubbish.
        Use it or lose it as they say.
        ( I did warn you I’m tesy at the moment)

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      3. P P-T,
        As “a group of pub restaurants” Brunning & Price ( a subsidiary of TRG, better known for Frankie and Benny’s ) are surely not so much “gastropubs” as up-market Wetherspoon venues and there’s a place for both though neither suit us curmudgeons as well as proper pubs.

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      4. If Brunning & Price aren’t gastropubs then I don’t know what qualifies !

        I applaud B&P for milking the golden cow (retirees and poshos with spare cash) so effectively and for running their operations as Spoons do. But they aren’t places for the casual drinker and their beer, local as it is, is rarely Good.

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      5. If a gastropub is “a pub that specialises in serving high-quality food” then maybe.Brunning & Prices are gastropubs – but the meals in the Swan at Whiston and Green Man at Milwich are higher quality but they’re not gastropubs, so it all gets a bit confusing.

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      6. Good point, Paul. It’s the focus of the place, rather than the quality or pricing that determines it for me. Agree neith Swan or Greene Man would count, or the Great Western which clearly has world quality pork baps.

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      7. Maybe for it to be a gastropub the menu needs to be incomprehensible to me and the food too expensive and needlessly laid out on the plate artistically.
        All that is probably to disguise the fact that it’s no better than the beef stew in the Stile or a pork bap in the Great Western.
        ,

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  5. We drove there last time & parking was a nightmare so train is a good idea & my husband is convinced that he won’t be able to find a non Harveys pub (he’s not keen on it ) We will go again though -a lovely place .Men don’t wear pashminas & Yorkshire men don’t wear scarves either

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