The White Hart Hotel has been in Lewes for centuries. Prior to his departure from England, revolutionary Thomas Paine would attend and dominate meetings of the Headstrong Club within its lovely oak panelled walls. It was here that he thrashed out the ideas that would later be put into stunning practise in the establishment of a democratic federation across the atlantic: The building deserves the blue plaque on its front identifying it as a seat of modern democracy.
A tragedy then, that it has fallen into the hands of the very worst sort of parochial english bad-management. Indifferent, unloved staff. Limp, lampwarmed carvery. Imaginationless, depressingly dated menus... On one occasion - it's second chance - we were discourteously deposited in the main restaurant - the delightful view serving largely to accentuate the grimness of the chintzy conservatory and sub bernie inn dining room - where we attempted (eventually) to order from both the Carvery and Bar menus (both contained, incidentally, in the same padded leather folder). We were told in the textbook haut-french-accent of a seventies sitcom maitre d' that, in order to do so, we would have to move from our table in the empty restaurant to another in the empty bar. We moved to a table in another restaurant.
There is so much that could be done here. A permanent exhibition on its history? A new 'colonial american' menu? Monthly 'revolutionary feast' evenings? A kitchen capable of meeting the expectations of its prices? Anything? It should be saved, someone should commandeer it and insist that it is. read more