25 February 2026

Beer and sandwiches: At the Rye Waterworks Micropub

This column is our weekly pub review, written by pintsmen, women and children across the nation. Suggestions to letters@newstatesman.co.uk

By New Statesman

Rye Waterworks Micropub is well acquainted with liquids, its premises having served as a pumphouse for some 300 years, before operating as a public toilet. These days, it’s a warm, welcoming taproom, serving around ten local beers (primarily ales, most under a fiver a pint) including some of Waterworks’ own. They’ve leaned into the heritage with these: take your pick from the I P(ee) A(lot), the UrRyenal Best and the Pissoir Porter – far more enjoyable than the names suggest. On the subject of toilets, I’m told the flush in the gents is a Doombar pull.

When they call it a micropub, they mean it. The interior is cosy, the ceilings low; be prepared to share a table and knock knees with your neighbours. Waterworks might be situated on one of Rye’s less pretty streets, away from the cobbles and half-timber houses, but the bench seating out front is still a pleasant spot to get gently sozzled in the late-afternoon sun.

Micro bar snacks

Fittingly, Waterworks is a wet pub, but the bar serves all the usual crisps and nuts, as well as beautiful pork pies and scotch eggs. There are no substantial meals, whatever cabinet ministers might have said during one of the pandemic’s most feverish moments, but the food is good for soaking up booze all the same.

Tin-pot emporium

Grown fond of your stool at the bar? Take it home with you. Waterworks doubles up as an antiques shop – hence the ramshackle decor of teapots, lamps and assorted tin signs. Everything not fixed to the walls or floors is for sale.