Lewes has a new weekly magazine. LewesGo Insight goes out every Thursday morning, and this is the first issue.
It arrives on the town's biggest night of the year, so the Bonfire guide leads. Inside are the week's concerts, a Remembrance weekend of requiems, the markets and a call for writers.
There are two editions of every issue. This one, the journalist edition, is written from LewesGo's listings and the public sources linked beside each story, then checked by an editor before it is published. The standard edition tells the same facts in the plain style of the LewesGo guide.
Every issue ends with the town's directory, A to Z, and a closer look at one part of it: this week, where Lewes goes for coffee. A letters page opens too. It has one letter so far, and it is made up. The next one could be yours.
The LewesGo team
Journalist edition. Written in news style from LewesGo's listings and the sources linked in each article, then checked by the editor. Read the standard edition.
Bonfire Night leaves Lewes under a red haze, as in this picture from a past Fifth. Next week's picture of the week could be yours: send us a photograph of Lewes you took yourself.
Lewes shuts to traffic at 4.45pm on Thursday. Police and the councils have asked residents to have cars home by 4pm, and visitors to leave theirs at home altogether. Source: East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service
No trains stop at Lewes on the night
From 5pm on Thursday, no trains are expected to stop at Lewes or at four neighbouring stations, Falmer, Cooksbridge, Glynde and Southease, until the first services on Friday morning. Source: East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service
Remembrance weekend
Remembrance Sunday falls on 8 November this year. The night before, the Lewes Singers mark it with two requiems at St Michael's Church. Details on the culture pages. Source: Lewes Singers
Christmas Emporium on 14 November
The first big Christmas market of the season comes early: Lewes Creatives fill the All Saints Centre with local art and craft on Saturday 14 November. Source: Visit Lewes listing
Under-26s free at the Christmas Concert
The Lewes Chamber Music Festival is letting under-26s into its Christmas Concert free. Everyone else pays £25, mince pie and mulled wine included. Source: Lewes Chamber Music Festival
The feature6
Remember, remember
Six societies, six fires and one town closed to cars. On Thursday night Lewes does what it has done every Fifth of November for generations.
By the time the first torches are lit on Thursday evening, Lewes will have closed itself to the outside world. Roads shut at 4.45pm. From 5pm no trains stop. What is left is a town of narrow streets, burning crosses and some of the loudest bangers in England.
Six societies march: Cliffe, Commercial Square, Lewes Borough, South Street, Southover and Waterloo. Each has its own colours, its own route and its own fire. Torchbearers gather at the War Memorial on the High Street, where the processions pause, before the town divides again for the fire sites.
What is left is a town of narrow streets, burning crosses and some of the loudest bangers in England.
South Street lights first, at about 8.30pm on the Railway Land near the Cliffe Bridge. Waterloo follows at about 9.30pm behind Tesco at Malling Recreation Ground. Then, at around 9.45pm, four fires go up at once: Cliffe at Ham Lane, Commercial Square at Landport, Lewes Borough at Landport Bottom and Southover on the Convent Field.
The night is held on the Fifth itself unless that falls on a Sunday. For anyone visiting, the advice from the emergency services is plain: come by bus or on foot, keep children close, and leave the dog at home.
LewesGo's Bonfire page has the fire sites on a map, the closures and the last trains.
Plan the journey home before you plan the night. Lewes is ringed by road closures from 4.45pm: at the Ashcombe Roundabout on the A27, at Offham on the A275, on Kingston Road, at Malling Street on the A26 and on Church Lane in South Malling.
The railway closes too. From 5pm trains are not expected to stop at Lewes, Falmer, Cooksbridge, Glynde or Southease until Friday's first services. The last direct trains from London Victoria leave at 3.24pm and 3.54pm.
Leaving before the processions? The last departures from Lewes include the 4.44pm to Brighton, the 4.55pm to Victoria, the 4.59pm to Ore and the 5.02pm to Seaford. Southern's journey planner has the rest.
Films by their makers, shown with YouTube's own player. The stills are YouTube's own, saved by LewesGo, so nothing loads from YouTube until you press play; the player uses YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode.
What's on10
The week ahead
Bonfire takes Thursday, but the rest of the week is busy: two Saturday markets, opera at Glyndebourne, a new Swiss film and a French resistance classic at the Film Club.
Lewes will remember quietly this year, and in harmony. On the eve of Remembrance Sunday the Lewes Singers bring two requiems to St Michael's Church: Fauré's, the most consoling of the form, and a setting by the composer Clive Osgood. Nicholas Houghton conducts, with orchestra.
Across the town that night, Musicians of All Saints give their Ian Copley Centenary Concert at 7.30pm.
Lewes will remember quietly this year, and in harmony.
Sunday belongs to the baroque. The Corelli Ensemble brings concertos by Vivaldi, Bach and Locatelli to St Pancras Church, with Maeve Jenkinson, Benn Hess and Richart Van Zyl as soloists. Tickets are on sale at the Tourist Information Centre.
And on Wednesday, Britten 50 Years On, the festival that has filled Lewes venues since April, takes to the cinema: Depot screens Moonrise Kingdom, whose score leans on Britten, at 5.30pm.
After the smoke of Thursday, Saturday brings the stalls: the Farmers Market is back in Friars Walk, as it is on the first and third Saturday of every month.
Lewes keeps its markets the old way: twice a month, on Saturday mornings, in a car park. From 9am the Friars Walk spaces off Court Road fill with Sussex producers and makers.
There are eggs and honey, cheeses, fruit and vegetables, bread and pastries, cakes, preserves, plants and drinks. By 1pm it has all gone, so the early shoppers do best.
Friday has its own market too: the Food Market at the Market Tower, from 9am every week.
For something grander, Pelham House is running an autumn Chef's Table on Sunday afternoon at £75, after a free Autumn Showcase on Saturday.
Lewes Farmers Market
Where?
Friars Walk car park, Court Road, BN7 2LE
When?
Saturday 7 November, 9am to 1pm (first and third Saturdays)
Running for the 10.06? LewesGo puts the station's departure boards and the High Street bus stops on your phone, live, refreshed every minute. Here is how they look.
Sample boards: the times below are illustrative, to show the layout. They are not a timetable. See the live boards.
Lewes DeparturesSample
Sample departures board, Lewes station
Time
Destination
Plat
Expected
10:06
Brighton
2
On time
10:10
London Victoria
1
On time
10:14
Seaford
4
10:17
10:21
Eastbourne
5
On time
10:28
Brighton
2
On time
10:36
Ore
5
On time
Lewes ArrivalsSample
Sample arrivals board, Lewes station
Time
From
Plat
Expected
10:04
Brighton
5
On time
10:09
Seaford
3
On time
10:13
London Victoria
2
10:15
10:19
Eastbourne
1
On time
10:31
Ore
2
On time
10:34
Brighton
4
On time
SouthboundHigh Street, towards Brighton
28BrightonLive: 3minTracked live · on time
29BrightonLive: 11minTracked live · on time
28Brighton10:42Timetable time, not tracked live
NorthboundHigh Street, towards Ringmer, Uckfield and Eastbourne
28RingmerLive: 6minTracked live · on time
29Tunbridge WellsLive: 14minTracked live · on time
The live boards use National Rail and Brighton & Hove Buses data, refreshed every minute.
Sport16
Isthmian League Premier Division
LewesvStanway Rovers
Saturday 14 November · 3pm
The Dripping Pan, Mountfield Road
Back at the Pan
The week after the Fifth, the noise moves to Mountfield Road: the Rooks are home to Stanway Rovers.
There are grander stadiums in English football, but few with a better view. The Dripping Pan sits in a hollow below the Priory ruins, and the Rooks have played there in red and black for well over a century.
It is also a club like few others. Lewes FC has belonged to its fans since 2010, and in 2017 it became the first professional or semi-professional club in the world to pay its women's and men's teams the same. Both sides now call the Pan home.
A club like few others: owned by its fans, and paying its women and men the same.
On Saturday 14 November the men's team welcome Stanway Rovers in the Isthmian League Premier Division, with kick-off at 3pm.
Before then, the town will need clearing up. Friday morning, with the smoke lifting off the Ouse, is the time to walk the riverside or climb to the castle and count the scorched fields below.
Insight is written by the people of Lewes as much as for them. Clubs, societies, schools, churches, shops, artists and anyone with something to say about the town can send an article.
Articles can be up to 800 words, with one photo you took yourself or have permission to use. Tell us your name and a line about you. We edit everything for length and clarity, and we will show you the edited version before it appears.
Every article appears in both editions: as you wrote it, tidied for the standard edition, and rewritten in news style for the journalist edition. You can ask us to keep your words as they are.
Deadline: Tuesday 6pm for that Thursday's issue.
Up to 800 words, one photo, your name and a line about you.
Your own work. Photos you took or have permission to use.
No adverts in disguise: businesses can book an advert instead.
Every November I tell my sister in Haywards Heath that this is the year I will stay with her for the Fifth. Every November I am back on my doorstep by six, with a flask, listening for the first drums coming up from Cliffe.
May I make a small plea to readers? The twittens are not shortcuts on Bonfire Night. They are where the rest of us are standing. And to whoever moved the recycling bins on our street last year to make room for the procession: thank you. They were back by Friday lunchtime, which is more than can be said for my hearing.
Welcome to the new magazine. I hope the letters page is as quarrelsome as the town.
M. Harding, Western Road
A fictional letter, written by LewesGo to show how this page will look. Real letters from readers start next week.
Write to us about anything in Insight or anything in Lewes. Letters should be 350 words or fewer and include your name and the area of Lewes you live in. We may shorten letters, and the views in them are the writers', not LewesGo's.
Lewes runs on coffee as much as on Harvey's. From the roasters of Cliffe High Street to a newcomer on School Hill, here are twelve cups worth crossing town for.
Trading Post Coffee Roasters Coffee roasters and café on Cliffe High Street for espresso, brunch and beans.18 Cliffe High Street, BN7 2AH
Blend Coffee Co. Food and drink37 Cliffe High Street, Lewes, BN7 2AN
Riverside Cafe Lewes Riverside café for coffee, light lunches and a Cliffe stop-off.High Street, BN7 2RE
Bake Out Lewes Lewes bakery and café for breads, sweet bakes and takeaway treats.1 High Street, BN7 2AD
Cornish Bakery Lewes High Street bakery for pastries, sourdough, coffee and grab-and-go lunches.5 High Street, BN7 2AD
GAIL's Bakery Lewes Bakery café on Lewes High Street for pastries, bread, coffee and light lunches.11 High Street, BN7 2LH
Moka Speciality coffee café on School Hill, new in 2026.16 High Street (School Hill), BN7 2LN
Taith Coffee Owner-operated coffee roastery, coffee bar, ceramic studio and bookshop.84 High Street, BN7 1XN
Flint Owl Bakery Independent bakery on Lewes High Street known for bread, pastries and coffee.209 High Street, BN7 2NS
Patisserie Lewes Food and drink52 Southover High Street, Lewes, BN7 1JA
The Espresso Room Station coffee stop for espresso, pastries and quick breakfasts at Lewes railway station.Station Road, BN7 2UP
From the LewesGo directory, checked against current public sources each week. Listings are free and not paid for. Opening hours change: check with the business before you go.
On LewesGo20
Lewes, every day
Insight lands on Thursdays. The rest of the week, LewesGo keeps the town's diary, sets a puzzle each morning and lists every shop, café and pub in its directory. Three corners of the site, as they look today.
What's on Gigs, comedy, markets, films, exhibitions and talks at venues in and around Lewes, updated twice a day.The daily challenge A mini crossword and a 90-second quiz, new every day. Free to play, easy to share, no sign-up.The Lewes directory Over 250 shops, cafés, pubs, services and places, checked every week, each with a pin on the map of Lewes. Listing is free.
Please note. This list is taken from the LewesGo directory when the issue was made. We check it against public sources such as OpenStreetMap and the Food Standards Agency, but businesses open, close and move, and we cannot guarantee that every entry is current or complete. A listing is not a recommendation or an endorsement, and no business paid to appear. Spotted a mistake, or want to be added? Tell us, it is free.
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