Archive for the ‘Sussex’ Category
Evening Pub Crawl of Lewes – Part 3
Dec 9th, 2009 |
This is the third post in a series featuring a pub crawl that Jon and I undertook recently around Lewes in East Sussex. It features the last couple of pubs we visited – the Lewes Arms and the Brewers Arms. You can visit the previous two posts:
- Arrival in Lewes, and the Harvey’s brewery
- The Dorset Arms, the Gardners Arms and the John Harvey Tavern
The Volunteer and the Elephant & Castle
Back across the river bridge and then to the right we came to the Volunteer on Eastgate Street.
It’s an attractive welcoming pub, but was selling just Sharp’s Doom Bar and St Austell Tribute. These are both fine beers but we decided we hadn’t come to Lewes to drink cornish beers so we decided to press on.
Next potential stop was the Elephant & Castle up the hill on White Hill. We decided that this pub didn’t look that inviting and as time we short we passed on that one too.
Retracing our steps slightly and then up a side street we came to the Lewes Arms.
The Lewes Arms (Backstory)
The Lewes Arms in Mount Place has some notoriety in that it was the setting for an extraordinary boycott some years ago by the regulars. At the time the pub was a Greene King pub and like every pub in Lewes it stocked Harvey’s Best. GK went through a stage a while ago of purging their pubs of all but their own beers and the Lewes Arms was no exception.
Only here the locals didn’t take too kindly to it and organised a campaign to get GK to change their minds. When Greene King wouldn’t, the boycott was born. All the regulars stayed away and the pub was apparently deserted most nights. I believe Greene King tried all kinds of tricks to convince people that the boycott wasn’t really working – including bussing staff in for quizzes etc from towns nearby.
Eventually though GK threw in the towel and began stocking Harvey’s Best again. After a while GK sold the pub to Fuller’s and now the Harvey’s Best rubs shoulders with London Pride and the other Chiswick-brewed regulars.
In retrospect Greene King argument that Harvey’s pubs tended to stock only Harvey’s beers and that they were only doing the same was a fair one. It is interesting now that the Royal Oak in Borough which is Harvey’s only London pub always carries one beer from the Fuller’s range – usually (but not always) the seasonal guest. It is rumoured that this is a reciprocal arragement for the Lewes Arms carrying Harvey’s Best but that was denied recently by the landlord of the Royal Oak. Incidentally the Fuller’s pints in the Royal Oak are always on top form.
In another recent move many GK pubs now regularly carry guest beers from other breweries – most notably in my experience the Fulflood Arms and the Green Man in Winchester which seem to stock hardly any GK beers. Perhaps GK learned from the Lewes Arms experience – perhaps the two occurences are unrelated.
Anyway I hear you cry, what is the Lewes Arms really like?
The Lewes Arms (Review)
This was my first trip to the Lewes Arms and I really had no idea what to expect. It’s located on a small backstreet and is quite a tiny pub inside. It reminded Jon and I of the Charles Lamb near Angel tube station in London – a larger room with small areas off.
The pub seems friendly and we weren’t treated like outsiders at all. The barstaff were chatty and the atmosphere overall was very good.
Beer-wise the selection reflects the Fuller’s ownership plus of course the Harvey’s Best’ Disappointingly the Gales HSB (one of my favourites) was lack-lustre and I thought the Red Fox to be not much good either. Ironically the best pint here was the Harvey’s Best but that wasn’t superb either.
It was a shame that such a nice pub should be let down by the beer quality.
After some hasty but tasty chips in the street from the chippy opposite the Lewes Arms, Jon and I headed off for our last pub of the evening – the Brewers Arms.
The Brewers Arms
The Brewers Arms in High Street, close to Lewes Castle, is quite large when you get inside and has two distinct halves – a subdued dimly lit front bar and a lively bright back bar.
We had no stranger-phobia that you get in some places and the barstaff were very friendly and efficient. They even let me take away a Harvey’s glass for a contribution to their charity box so I’ll always be well disposed to the pub.
The Brewers Arms is advertised as a true free-house and the selection was quite eclectic. I tried a Hammerpot brewery beer (forget which one – oops) which was OK but the Harvey’s Best was very, very good. And so that beer bookended our trip to Lewes. All that was left was our synchronised dash to the station to pick up the train back to London.
A Summary
Our evening in Lewes was great fun despite the rather gloomy October weather. The pubs on a map don’t seem very concentrated but Lewes is quite a small town and it doesn’t take long to get between them. Lewes itself looks interesting and is worth a visit for more than just the beer.
There’s a map of our Lewes Pub Crawl here.
Evening Pub Crawl of Lewes – Part 2
Dec 7th, 2009 |
Jon and I had a pub crawl in Lewes one evening recently. The first post covered arrival in Lewes and the brewery. This second part covers the first few pubs we visited – the Dorset Arms, the Gardeners Arms and the John Harvey Tavern. A third page covers the Lewes Arms and the Brewers Arms
The Dorset Arms
The Dorset Arms is a large Harvey’s pub in the cliffe area of Lewes. The pub interior has a victorian feel at the front with a good cast iron fireplace and coloured glass in the dividers. The back of the pub is a bit more modern and bright.
It was a bit hard to judge the atmosphere in the Dorset Arms since for most of my visit I was the only person there apart from the barstaff (Jon was still on his way down). But to be fair to the pub it was 4:20 on a grey Tuesday afternoon.
The beers are all from the Harvey’s brewery just up the road. Again it may be down to the lack of customers but the Sussex Best tasted a bit tired. The peanuts however were very reasonably priced – a large portion served for 55 pence in a bowl. They also weren’t too salty either which was good.
Food is also available but I didn’t have any.
Overall, a slightly disappointing start to the pub crawl. So on to the next one.
The Gardeners Arms
Back up Cliffe High Street towards the brewery I popped into the Gardeners Arms.
This is a narrow, cosy free house diagonallly opposite the Harvey’s brewery shop. The atmosphere was pretty lively and welcoming despite the time 4:40 ish on a grey Tuesday afternoon. You get the impression that most customers are locals, but it’s not cliquey.
Six beers are available on my visit: Harvey’s Best, Adur Black William, Bartrams Suffolk Trinity, Hopdaemon Green Daemon, Red Squirrel Conservation and Harvey’s Old Ale. I had the Red Squirrel beer which was quite dark in appearance but much more hoppy than malty in taste. Much more to my taste than the Green Daemon which I tried a small sample of.
I didn’t have time to try more than one before I was off to meet Jon at the next pub – the John Harvey Tavern.
The John Harvey Tavern
Set slightly back from the south side of Cliffe High Street right by the river, the John Harvey Tavern is the brewery tap for the Harvey’s brewery opposite. Jon arrived shortly after I did at about 5pm.
The interior is traditional dark wood with wooden pillars and beams. Some of the seating areas are done up to look like you’re sitting in a huge barrel – a nice 70s touch I felt. There is a buzz about the place even though it’s a large pub and the real fire at one end of the main bar is welcome.
The beers are superb – Harvey’s Sussex Best is available on gravity along with a couple of others. Initially the Best seems to hit the spot but after a while you wonder whether it would be better served through a handpump – it’s a little flat. But you can’t knock the flavour though.
Food is available but we didn’t eat here.
Time for a couple before heading off.
The last part of our trip to Lewes is covered in the 3rd part of this series.
There’s a map of our Lewes Pub Crawl here.
Evening Pub Crawl of Lewes – Part 1
Dec 3rd, 2009 |
Recently, Jon and I took an evening trip to Lewes for a bit of a crawl round the pubs. We’d been to Brighton for the evening many times before and wanted a change so Lewes was selected – partly because of our love of Harvey’s beers. A quick glance at our Southern Railway timetables showed that although the trains from London to Lewes were not as frequent as to Brighton, they were still just as quick.
I’d been to Lewes before but never drunk there – not even on bonfire night which they take very seriously in Lewes. The town itself is a really attractive traditional old town – well worth a visit for things other than pubs.
Arrival in Lewes
There is evidence of the presence of the Harvey’s brewery all over the town. It starts when you get off the train and see the small distribution warehouse across the station car park.
From here I walked up a curving path that used to be, or used to run next to the southern end of the railway line that once linked Lewes with Uckfield and Tunbridge Wells. Looking back towards the station just a bit after the Harvey’s distribution warehouse there is what looks like a tunnel mouth. I’m not familiar enough with the original path of the railway or its history in Lewes, but was the warehouse directly linked to the railway here? Some historical research needed when time permits.
The Harvey’s Brewery (from the outside)
The path of the railway gets lost as you approach the High Street but I soon found myself at the bridge over the River Ouse. Diagonally opposite you can see the classic tower structure of the brewery itself – the view seen in many photos obviously taken from the bridge, including the one shown here.
As I wandered down into the brewery yard I was immediately struck by how small the brewery was – no bigger than a small town church really. Given the growing popularity of Harvey’s beers these days I wondered immediately how they managed to cope. I thought immediately of other small scale breweries that were forced to move by the capacity restrictions of their original premises – eg Dark Star and Hop Back. But fortunately for now the brewery shows no sign of having to move.
I had not booked onto a visit so I didn’t stay for long. I made a mental note to return to look tround the brewery one day – although I gather the waiting list is substantial.
I quickly popped into the brewery shop round the corner in Cliffe High Street. Apart from the expected merchandising for sale, the shop appeared to be surprisingly full of bottles of wine rather than beer. Takeaway containers are available here and presumably the draught beer is served straight from the adjacent brewery.
But I didn’t take advantage of that as it was straight on to the first of the pubs on the list – pausing only to explore the pumpkins outside Bill’s cafe on the High Street.
The next post in the series covers the first few pubs we visited in Lewes. A third post covers the last couple.
There’s a map of our Lewes Pub Crawl here.
An Evening Out In Brighton
Jul 16th, 2009 |
Most of my beer drinking takes place in London after work or occasionally in Woking where I live. But just now and again it’s worth getting away somewhere different for an evening.
With a slightly earler departure from work and a bit of time invested on a train you can be in many interesting places. Using the discount available with an annual gold card is useful too.
Late last week it was Brighton’s turn and I’d like to share with you my mini pub crawl of 3 real ale pubs in the seaside city. The crawl doesn’t take you far from the station, and in fact nowhere near the sea but the sound of the seagulls will reassure you that it’s over there somewhere.
So, leave Brighton station by the front entrance and head over to the right of the cab stand and turn left down the hill that emerges blinking from under the station frontage. This is the top of Trafalgar Street. As you go down the hill look out for the first pub on the itinerary – The Lord Nelson at 36 Trafalgar Street.
The Lord Nelson
The Lord Nelson is a traditional Harvey’s pub. It looks tiny from the outside but is actually bigger inside. The Gallery Room out the back features local art and becomes a family room at weekends.
The pub carries most of the Harvey’s range and the beers are kept very well.
Food is not available in the evenings so if you want something to eat it’s best to wait to the next pub – the Basketmakers Arms.
So when you’re ready to move on, carry on down Trafalgar Street and then take one of the roads on the right – Sydney Street is a good one for North Laine shops and then turn left onto Gloucester Place. The Basketmakers is down the hill on the right hand side.
The Basketmakers Arms
The Basketmakers Arms (12 Gloucester Rd) is a Fuller’s pub these days, but was formerly one of Brighton’s Gale’s pubs. This pub is consistently busy but that is due to it being one of the finest pubs in Brighton. It’s a friendly, lively place.
As well as the standard Fuller’s London beer selection, The Basketmakers offer one or two Gales beers and there is usually a guest beer of some sort. The Gales HSB is always excellent, and when available the Gales Festival Mild hits the spot too.
I always eat at the Basketmakers Arms when on pub visits to Brighton as the food is superb. Choose from a varied and reasonably priced menu.
As well as beer and food, the pub is worth a visit just for the collection of old photographs, signs and other memorabilia.
But come on now, it’s time to move on to the 3rd and final pub. So head straight back up Gloucester Road – right to the top, carefully cross over into the middle of the small one way system and turn right into Surrey Street and there you’ll find The Evening Star.
The Evening Star
The tiny Evening Star (55 Surrey St) is run by the Dark Star Brewery so you’ll not be surprised to hear that several beers from their range are available including Hophead permanently, as well as guests from other micros, real ciders, and a good selection of belgian bottled beers.
Now you’ll understand why there are only three pubs on this crawl and that this is the last one. Don’t forget to actually get your train home – fortunately the station is not too far away.
The pub is full of friendly people who love good beer – whether that’s what you’re looking for is up to you. For me the Evening Star is a must for any trip to Brighton.
That is the regular pattern of my evening trips to Brighton, but if you’re feeling adventurous and looking for an alternative then try the Shakespeare’s Head.
The Shakespeare’s Head
Situated about 10 mins walk north-west of the station The Shakespeare’s Head (1 Chatham Place) is Brighton’s Hall & Woodhouse pub.
It’s location means it’s away from the central circuit but it’s still worth a trip – don’t be put off by the dingy exterior. If you like Badger beers then 2 or 3 are available on draught and they carry many of the bottled range too. The Badger Best I had tasted very good.
Another significant reason to visit the Shakespeare’s Head is the famous selection of sausages. First choose your sausages then choose your mash (yes, more than one type) and then choose your gravy. End result is a plate full of heaven.
View a Google map of this pub crawl.
Next week, Winchester.