About Pelham House Hotel, Lewes
Pelham House is a 16th Century Town House Hotel in East Sussex. Restored to create a stylish venue it combines elegance and history, and is just 10mins from Brighton.
Bedrooms
It offers 31 Romantic Boutique hotel style bedrooms, each of which has been individually designed for maximum comfort whilst preserving many original historic features of the building.
All the bedrooms are fitted with contemporary handmade oak furniture, remote controlled TVs, phones and high speed data points and have en-suite baths or luxury showers.
They also contain a range of natural toiletries and comfortable beds with crisp white linen.
Most of them overlook our pretty south facing garden, with views beyond to the South Downs, which have just been declared a National Park and area of outstanding natural beauty.
History
Pelham House began its story back in the 16th Century when a man named George Goring bought a plot of land with plans to build a lavish stone mansion.
George was also responsible for commissioning the magnificent wooden caryatids and panelling, which can be seen today in the restaurant.
The property remained in the Goring family for nearly 100 years before they sold it to Peter Courthorpe who only lived at Pelham House for a short while before selling the property off in separate lots.
It was then bought by the Pelham family who gave the house its name. In 1725 Thomas Pelham set about major refurbishments and began buying back the land and property.
The Pelham family sold the property in 1806 having lived here for 150 years. Over the next 197 years Pelham House was owned by a variety of people, including the East Sussex County Council, who used it as the administrative headquarters for more than 75 years.
In 2004, Pelham House was purchased jointly by a group of four local families and was converted into a beautiful hotel.
Travel
Our Lewes hotel is an easy location to reach, with Lewes station just a few minutes walk and you can catch regular fast trains to London Gatwick and London Victoria. So you won't have to travel for long.
Road links are also excellent, with fast access to Brighton, Dover, the Channel Tunnel and Newhaven (Dieppe) just 10 minutes away.
Bar and Restaurant
Our experienced and professional staff will provide the highest standards of service to ensure you have a relaxed and successful stay.
In January 2008, Pelham House launched its new bar and restaurant focusing on simple and delicious food, using locally- sourced produce, at a fair price.
Our varied and constantly-changing menu is the creation of our head chef Glenn Lester.
The restaurant is set in two of the most historic rooms of the house - the Panelled Room and the Garden Room, both dating back to the 16th century, with beautiful views over our gardens onto the South Downs.
The Panelled Room contains some remarkable wood carvings, which are one of the great treasures of the House. The restaurant is now open to the public every day, from 12 pm for lunches and from 6.30 pm for dinner.
Meeting Rooms
With its five meeting rooms offering capacity for up to 180 delegates, Pelham House Hotel is a perfect venue for hosting senior management board meetings, training, events and meetings.
The design and layout of the function rooms is contemporary in style, with natural daylight and views of the South Downs from most rooms.
The beautiful gardens of the house have an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity, ideal for thought and contemplation.
For special events requiring added privacy we offer the possibility of hiring the house exclusively.
Pelham House is licensed to hold civil ceremonies. This can take place in the Terrace room with lovely views of the garden. It truly offers the best wedding venue in Sussex.
On top of that, it is strongly committed to the promotion of arts and culture. The house and grounds play host to a permanent collection of modern sculpture and throughout the year, and we stage exhibitions of painting and photography by local artists.
In addition, our venue is regularly hired by arts groups and promoters to stage a wide variety of theatrical, musical and poetic cultural events.
Sculpture is always on exhibition in the garden and comes and goes as if by magic, so you never know when you will find a piece you haven't seen before.
Our team of experienced hotel and event professionals will aim to ensure that your stay is a memorable and relaxing experience.
