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Bricks &
Mortar - The Crown Inn
The Crown, a grade 2 listed building, is the longest serving
pub in Lewes. It has been pouring out ale for its customers
since at least 1638, when it was known as the Black Lyon and
was a coaching inn, with stables in the space which is now
the parking bay for Barclays Bank. Look carefully and you
can still see the haylofts and pulley system from this time.
The inn didn’t become known as the Crown until 1812.
In the 1860’s it incorporated an off licence, which
boasted being ‘the sole agent for Lewes & neighbourhood
for Marshall’s Hungarian Brandy.’
In the early 1980’s, when there was still a piano in
the bar, the Brewer’s briefly became the vogue pub for
many of the town’s young drinkers who sang rebel songs
to the accompaniment of the late, great John Rodhouse; nowadays
it very much has the reputation as being a quiet local bar.
They do some of the best pub lunches in town, however, best
eaten in the spectacular plant-filled Victorian conservatory
at the back of the building. The menu changes weekly; I’m
still poking my nose in to see if they’ve put on the
best haggis neeps and tattie I’ve tasted this side of
Stirling. The adjacent dining room, with its 17th century
wood-panelled walls and ceiling, is only open to hotel customers
and barristers who want a quiet lunch. The Crown does not
serve food in the evening: more’s the pity. AL
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