North London Food & Culture

Free Weekend: Explore Rye, East Sussex


Rye is film set quaint, but it’s only when we climb the church tower – a perilous scramble up wooden step-ladders, along foot-wide corridors and finally through a hatch ejecting us onto the windblown roof – that we fully understand its masterful position.

Once surrounded by sea, this fortified hilltop town played a prime role in the defence of the south coast. And whilst the warships are long gone, the view – over medieval rooftops and the confluence of the three rivers beyond – is as awe-inspiring as ever. Even better, it’s so easy from north London: a 38 minute high speed hop from St Pancras to Ashford followed by quarter of an hour on the local chugalong.

So yes, Rye is centuries old: back down on the ground we admire the Ypres fort, built in 1249 to prevent cross-channel attacks, and wander round the cobbled streets, past the 14th century Landgate, the only surviving fortified entrance to the citadel.


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There are enough antique and vintage shops to exhaust an army of Mrs Kentishtowners, but we advise you not to miss superlative examples on Cinque Ports Street like McCully & Crane (below, middle) and Hunter Jones, a former fish hut. Textile designer Laura Oakes, who runs a colourful boutique nearby, gives us some insider tips the town. Everyone hangs out at The Ship Inn, she says – and its mish-mash candlelit Cath Kidston-style décor is quite a shock from the old mariner’s haunt we remember from an earlier visit.

We’re fans of Michelin-starred modern Indian restaurant The Ambrette in Margate and try their new branch here, its Georgian frontage belying a medieval heritage. Like its Kent sibling, it pairs slightly stilted service with founder Dev Biswal’s innovative cooking: sardines spiced with carom seeds and ginger, sticky pork belly with fennel and sesame, spiced crab with cardamom fennel. It’s food to talk about, for sure, but there’s little more than a respectful whisper in the dining room.

Bellies full, we head up steeply-cobbled and much-gawped-at Mermaid Street to Jeake’s House, the rather bohemian small hotel stitched together from various 16th and 17th century buildings (including a wool store and a Quaker meeting house).

Bedrooms are named after literary figures, such as Malcolm Lowry who visited when the place was run by the poet Conrad Aitken. We’re in the Radclyffe Hall suite: the author of The Well Of Loneliness was a regular in the town in the late ‘20s with her lover, the divorced Lady Troubridge. Known as the ‘Roaring Girls’, Hall would dress in masculine clothes, preferring to call herself John. And why not.

It’s a four poster and the decor is suitably Dangerous Liasions meets Twenties flapper girl – with a creeping hint of the 1980s. Risque prints, swooshing frills, tassels and chandeliers abound: it’s no surprise to learn, over a tasty ‘Rye Rarebit’ for breakfast, that vivacious owner Jenny Hadfield has run it for 25 years.

‘Potatoes are roasted overnight,’ says enthusiastic young chef-owner Leo the next day at the 17th Ypres Castle Inn, beneath the ramparts of the tower, which he’s taken over recently and done up with a pot of Farrow and Ball. A main of rare Romney Marsh lamb beats the roast beef (just), and both are served with crunchy seasonal vegetables and Yorkshire puddings exploding gravy. We even cram in ham hock to start, and platter of mini desserts afterwards.

Before we leave, we linger on the Ypres fort, gazing out over where the three rivers meet. The view in the bright sun is spell-binding – wind farm, cranes, gulls, low tide beds. Beyond is the distant industrial harbour, its fishing boats beached on mud.

But just as quickly the sky clouds over, and – you guessed it – that interminable summer rain starts falling.


Jeakes House, Mermaid Street, Rye. Tel: +44 (0) 1797 222828
Email: stay@jeakeshouse.com. Doubles with a la carte breakfast from £90.
Ypres Castle Inn, Gungarden, Rye 01797 223 248. Sunday Lunch is a tenner. Puddings £5.

Words & Photos: Stephen Emms


1 thought on “Free Weekend: Explore Rye, East Sussex”

  1. Great piece thank you. I’ve always loved Rye, but have never had the pleasure of an overnight stay. I first became aware of the place watching the televised version of E F Benson’s wonderfully camp Mapp and Lucia, as Tilling is based on Rye and the series was beautifully filmed on location. Must get back down there again soon.

Leave a Comment

1 thought on “Free Weekend: Explore Rye, East Sussex”

  1. Great piece thank you. I’ve always loved Rye, but have never had the pleasure of an overnight stay. I first became aware of the place watching the televised version of E F Benson’s wonderfully camp Mapp and Lucia, as Tilling is based on Rye and the series was beautifully filmed on location. Must get back down there again soon.

Leave a Comment

About Kentishtowner

The award-winning print and online title Kentishtowner was founded in 2010 and is part of London Belongs To Me, a citywide network of travel guides for locals. For more info on what we write about and why, see our About section.