What’s a place you visited that felt like home?
Lewes. I first visited in May 2000, not long after we had moved to Brighton for work. Our children were not yet two and four — both still a month short of their birthdays.
We came out of the station and simply wandered. At some point we found ourselves in Grange Gardens, where the children climbed the old mulberry tree. I remember having the distinct feeling that this was somewhere we could live.
Lewes seemed exactly the right size for a young family. Almost everything we could want was within walking distance: somewhere to live, nurseries and schools, gardens and the river, thriving independent shops, a Norman castle and streets of houses accumulated across the centuries. There were views towards the Downs and, from higher ground, even towards the English Channel.
It had the practical things too: a leisure centre, a library, a supermarket, cafés, a children’s bookshop and, wonderfully, a large outdoor swimming pool.
It felt complete without being large; historic without feeling like a museum. We rented at first. Later we bought somewhere here.
And stayed.
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