With its charming houses and busy high street brimming with artisanal bakers and old bookshops, Lewes may appear to be the epitome of conventional English respectability. Calm tea shops and art galleries line the medieval lanes where well-dressed people politely greet one another, earning the title of “prettiest place in the UK” from The Telegraph, a reliable judge of middle-class British preferences. Grand Victorian architecture is also evident at the local flea market, which is held in a former Methodist chapel.
However, beneath the surface of conservative uniformity, this charming Sussex town has a deep history of radicalism.
Every year on November 5th, Lewes is transformed into a raging flurry of anti-establishmentarianism.
