Editing Lewes (section)

==Landmarks==

[[File:Lewes Castle towers.JPG|thumb|right|[[Lewes Castle]]]]
The town is the location of several significant historic buildings, including [[Lewes Castle]], the remains of [[Lewes Priory]], Bull House (the former home of [[Thomas Paine]]), [[Southover Grange]] and public gardens, and a 16th-century timber-framed [[Wealden hall house]] known as [[Anne of Cleves House]] because it was given to her as part of her divorce settlement from [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], though she never lived there. Anne of Cleves House and the castle are owned and maintained by the [[Sussex Archaeological Society]] (whose headquarters are in Lewes). The Round House, a secluded former [[windmill]] in Pipe Passage, was owned by the writer [[Virginia Woolf]].

The steep and cobbled Keere Street is home to many historic buildings, including a [[timber framed]] antiquarian bookshop. The gardens of the buildings on the east side of the street border the old Town Walls. The [[George IV|Prince Regent]] once drove his [[carriage]] down the street, and a sign at the bottom commemorates this event.

[[File:The Fifteenth Century Bookshop.JPG|thumb|right|The Fifteenth Century Bookshop, on the corner of High Street and Keere Street]]
The ancient street pattern survives extensively as do a high proportion of the medieval building plots and oak framed houses, albeit often masked with later facades. The 18th-century frontages are notable and include several, like Bartholomew House at the Castle Gate, that are clad in [[mathematical tile]]s which mimic fine brick construction. Numerous streets of 18th- and 19th-century cottages have survived cycles of [[Slum clearance in the United Kingdom|slum clearance]] as models of attractive town housing.

At the highest point of the old town the [[Portland stone]] and [[Coade stone]] facade of the [[Lewes Crown Court|Crown Court]] (1808–12, by [[John Johnson (architect, born 1732)|John Johnson]]), the brick Market Tower and florid [[Lewes War Memorial]] mark the historic centre, although trade has tended to concentrate on the lower land in modern times. At the lowest part of the town, by the river, [[Harvey & Son]]'s Brewery, 'The Cathedral of Lewes' is an unspoilt 19th-century tower brewery and is the only one of the town's five original major breweries still in use. Nearby [[Fitzroy House]] is a [[George Gilbert Scott]] designed building, constructed as a library in memory of Lewes MP [[Henry FitzRoy (politician)|Henry FitzRoy]] in 1862 and now a private residence.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/realestate/a-rare-home-from-a-master-of-britains-gothic-revival.html |date=18 February 2016 |accessdate=6 March 2022 |first=Laura |last=Latham |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York |title=A Rare Home From a Master of Britain's Gothic Revival |archive-date=6 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220306053456/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/realestate/a-rare-home-from-a-master-of-britains-gothic-revival.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The railway station is the other important monument of the industrial era.

[[File:Thomas Paines Lewes home.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Bull House: [[Thomas Paine]]'s home]]
[[Southover Grange]] is a [[Listed building|grade II*listed]] Tudor manor house built in 1572 with [[Caen limestone]] taken from the ruins of [[Lewes Priory]].<ref>{{NHLE | num=1192300 | desc=SOUTHOVER GRANGE |access-date=8 September 2016}}</ref> The house and its gardens were bought by Lewes District Council and opened to the public in 1945. The house is now owned by [[East Sussex County Council]], and it is currently being refurbished into a wedding venue, registry office and community facility. The east wing is leased to an art shop and the Window café (open in spring and summer). The Grange gardens are divided by the Winterbourne stream and contain formal bedding displays, a wildflower area, a knot garden and some notable trees, including a large [[Magnolia grandiflora]], a [[mulberry tree]] dating perhaps to the 17th century and a [[tulip tree]] planted by [[Queen Elizabeth II]]. The gardens are open to the public during daylight hours all year round.
[[Image:Keere Street, Lewes.JPG|thumb|right|Keere Street]]

Pelham House dates back to the 16th century and features architecture of all subsequent eras and a private landscaped garden facing the Downs. It now serves as an independent hotel. The Shelleys, also now a hotel, is likewise of some antiquity with a private garden and family associations with [[Percy Shelley]].

The centre of Lewes is notable for a consistently high calibre of regional vernacular architecture and variety of historic construction materials and techniques. A comprehensive survey of all historical plaques was conducted in 2013 by a local civic society, the Friends of Lewes.<ref>{{citation |url=https://friendsoflewes.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/lewes_plaques_and_photos_asj_150124.pdf |publisher=Friends of Lewes |title=Lewes Historical Plaque |access-date=4 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204122826/https://friendsoflewes.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/lewes_plaques_and_photos_asj_150124.pdf |archive-date=4 February 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

A distinctive feature of the centre of Lewes is the network of alleyways or 'twittens' which run north–south on either side of the High Street and date back to Anglo-Saxon times. According to the Dictionary of the Sussex dialect and collection of provincialisms in use in the county of Sussex published in Lewes in 1875. "Twitten is a narrow path between two walls or hedges, especially on hills. For example, small passageways leading between two buildings to courtyards, streets, or open areas behind". Some twittens (e.g. Broomans Lane, Church Twitten, Green Lane, Paine's Twitten) remain flint-wall-lined pedestrian thoroughfares, others (e.g. Watergate Lane, St Andrew's Lane and renamed Station Street (formerly St Mary's Lane)) are now narrow usually one-way roads. The most notable of all Lewes' twittens is Keere Street. A weekly Sunday morning run up and down all the twittens on the south side of the High Street – the so-called Twitten Run – has operated in the town since November 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://friends-of-lewes.org.uk/2012/10/30/kim-clark-lewes-street-names-and-twittens/ |title=New book by Kim Clark – the Twittens |date=30 October 2012 |access-date=19 October 2018 |archive-date=20 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181020011516/https://friends-of-lewes.org.uk/2012/10/30/kim-clark-lewes-street-names-and-twittens/ |url-status=live}}</ref>