hotelThe Hotel Inspector · Season 5, Episode 1 · Aired July 6, 2009
The Crown Inn (Lewes)
Lewes, England
Yes. This one is still open.
What happened after
Restored 'oldest inn in Lewes' after a period of documented decay; now 8 rooms + pub trading actively.
What happened on the show
Alex Polizzi opened series 5 by calling the Crown Inn in Lewes one of the worst places she had ever inspected, which set the tone. After a run of scathing online reviews and having lost a hard-won star in the Visit England ratings, the guest house had slid into a state Polizzi described as filthy. This was a property that had let its standards collapse in full view of the review sites, and her task was to restore a genuinely old and characterful inn, billed as the oldest in Lewes, to something a guest would willingly pay for. The fix started with the basics of cleanliness and presentation before anything more ambitious, because no amount of positioning helps a place that fails on hygiene.
After the cameras left
The Crown Inn was hauled back from the brink and remains open. It has been restored after a documented period of decay and now trades as an eight-room inn and pub on Lewes High Street. A Sussex Express feature in October 2020 described the building as having suffered years of decline before its restoration, corroborating the show's original account of a business in freefall. Whatever state Polizzi walked into, the oldest inn in Lewes is a going concern today, one of the series 5 cases that genuinely turned.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.