Cradle of American Independence?

The illuminated frontage of the White Hart Hotel, in the centre of Lewes, the building that claims to be important in the cause of American independence, the place where Thomas Paine, whose 1776 pamphlet "Common Sense" was said to have inspired the Declaration of Independence, forged his radical policies, in the inn's debating club.

The three-star hotel ? sadly a mite dreary to my mind ? was once a 16th century coaching in, and was already centuries old when Mr. Paine turfed up.