Now that another high-class cafe has opened in Lewes (attached to a pioneering state-of-the-art cinema and arts venue, the Depot) it’s time to revise this little list of the town’s coffee shops.
I have counted 48. Lewes’s population is 17,297 according to the 2011 census.
Importantly, if you’re walking between two coffee shops and it all gets too much, there’s almost certainly going to be another one half-way along your route. You don’t need to wait too long! My favourite is Laporte’s (latte, full English, bubble & squeak…), but it’s great to have the choice.
Three-and-a-half years have passed since the last list: and there are changes. This time, hotels where you can ask for coffee, without the staff raising eyebrows, have been included. Many of Lewes’s much-loved pubs offer good artisan coffee; but they are not included here.
Corrections are welcome, and I apologise to any business accidentally omitted or mis-classified. In a roughly east-to-west order:
- Cafe du Jardin
- M & S at the BP service station ** NATIONAL CHAIN
- Costa at Tesco ** NATIONAL CHAIN
- The Real Eating Company ** SMALL/LOCAL CHAIN
- Smoketronics
- Le Magazin
- Bill’s ** NATIONAL CHAIN
- Riverside Cafe-Bar
- Riverside Brasserie
- Bake Out ** SMALL/LOCAL CHAIN
- Waterstone’s ** NATIONAL CHAIN
- Costa in the Cliffe ** NATIONAL CHAIN
- Waitrose’s coffee machine ** NATIONAL CHAIN
- The Hearth bakery
- Aqua ** SMALL CHAIN
- Laporte’s
- Ground Coffee House ** SMALL/LOCAL CHAIN
- Symposium
- The Runaway
- Daisy’s
- Depot Cinema
- Limetree Kitchen
- Steamer Trading Company ** SMALL/LOCAL CHAIN
- Robson’s
- Wickle upstairs
- Wickle downstairs
- Crumbs
- PJ’s@30
- Cheese Please
- Fillers
- The White Hart
- Pelham House Hotel
- Back Yard Cafe (Needlemakers’)
- Flint Owl Bakery shop
- Lewes Patisserie
- Grange Gardens
- Pell’s Pool kiosk
- Bean + Bun
- Caffe Nero ** NATIONAL CHAIN
- Beckworths (takeaway)
- Castle Sandwich Bar
- Anne of Cleeves House cafe
- Lewes Fish Bar
- Southdown Sports Club (Caffe Lazzati)
- Tina’s Kitchen
- Shelley’s Hotel
- Greenies
- Hannah’s Van (Mobile)