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| Above and below are some pictures from our late Summer trip to Hastings on the East Sussex coast. And the reason for the visit during our exceptional Summer was to go and check out the newly renovated Hastings Pier. It seems like ages since we were last there. Sadly the Pier was destroyed in a fire back in 2010 but after several years and at a cost of £14.2m the pier is well and truly back. But what surprised and slightly shocked me about it was that unlike the more cluttered and busy looking Pier prior to the Fire, there's actually not very much on it. Just a handful of local food and souvenir outlets. And the word that comes to mind is minimalism. And it came as no surprise to me recently to discover that the Pier won last years Stirling Architecture Prize as the best building of 2017. The great swathes of open spaces makes the Pier look like some kind of art installation. Perhaps in time more local businesses might take up residency on this iconic structure. But at least we were thrilled that it's back and that it wasn't just left abandoned like some of our Piers scattered around the British coastline. |
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Above: An online Library image of Hastings Pier in 2005. Below: Hastings Pier - Summer 2018. And you can see a great difference before and after the renovations. |
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Hastings Pier from high up at White Rock Gardens. |
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| Lets all go to Hastings Beach and...... look at our mobile phones! |
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Above: The recently new Jerwood Art Gallery on the Hastings seafront. |
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Above: Some sporting sparring in the Gardens of White Rock which overlooks Hastings Pier. |
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Later that afternoon after some local Fish & Chips we headed off up to The East Hill and the Coast Path to one of our old haunts, Fairlight Glen where there is a public nudist Beach, although we haven't been able to get to it for quite a few years as the cliff edge rocks keep falling in to the sea. But we thought we'd see if any new paths would lead us there. Unfortunately we had hardly got a quarter of the way when the path was shut off, once again and we saw this sign (below image) which told us to go no further. There was some kind of long winded diversion path to get there but as the afternoon was getting on we thought we'd leave the coast path and head back to town. Perhaps we'll try it next time. |
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Above: The view from the top of The East Hill looking towards West St Leonards, and beyond that, Bexhill. |
Cheeky boy, weren't you? I remember staying at Hastings during our camper van tour of Europe 20 years ago. We'd come from Belgium, across on the Dover ferry and took a long drive late in the afternoon to Hastings where it was getting dark. I've always regretted not continuing on to Brighton and camping there instead. But I'd had enough driving for one day and the next we had to make a day trip to London. Your images make H seem better than I recall. - Ian
ReplyDeleteIan, I think they've been improving the Town over the last 10 years. Even the railway Station front is all glass and very hi tech.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago there used to be lots of migrants from Europe hanging around aimlessly on the seafront. Seems less of them now.
Lots of European students are drawn to Hastings in the Summer because of it's historical connections. And there is of course the Village of Battle nearby where the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. Spent a lovely weekend once in Battle. That's when I discovered Hastings.