Hastings Seafront Walk & Homage to Byzantium...

I was out quite early this morning, shopping at Morrisons just after 07.00, and then walking via back streets to St Leonards Church at the end of Undercliff, then crossing to the seafront. I walked eastwards and took this photograph looking back to the west (my earliest photographs today are all facing away from the sun 😎), with Eastbourne and Beachy Head way over there in the distance. Indeed, the tide would be turning back towards shore about 10 minutes after I took the photograph.

The first photograph with a direct reference to the vampire film Byzantium (YouTube trailer), half of which was filmed in Hastings and half was filmed in Cork, is of the lower promenade part of the Azur Marina Pavilion (website), which was built in the 1930s; Hastings & St Leonards has quite a few art deco buildings from this time! This part of the building is featured in the film as the lounge of a home for older people, and the character played by Saoirse Ronan plays the piano here, and more, but I shan't ruin it in case you haven't seen the film yet, and decide to... 😉 I first wrote about the Azur over 7 years ago, when I reviewed the breakfast served, and eaten by me, here (blog).

I carried on eastwards, deciding to look back and take this photograph, with the Azur Marina Pavilion dwarfed by, and apparently listing towards it, Marine Court, which I have written about before (blog). Marine Court is another fine 1930s building and modelled on the Cunard Liner the Queen Mary, the blog is well worth the read.

Carrying on to the east and I walked through Bottle Alley, shortly before the end of which I looked back westwards again and took this photograph. I have written about Sidney Little's Bottle Alley before when the new lighting was installed 5 years ago, when I also mentioned it featuring in the film Byzantium (blog).

Carrying on further to the east and I soon reached one of the main stars of the film Byzantium (trailer), as in, the building used in the film as Byzantium. This was originally called the Palace Hotel, and was built in 1885-86, it is now the Grade II listed Palace Court, and is across the road from the beach.

Again looking back westwards, although nothing to do with the film, indeed, it wasn't even here when Byzantium was being filmed in Hastings, but I photographed this really quite marvellous sculpture on the beach. This was created as part of the 950th Battle of Hastings anniversary celebrations and depicts a Norman Longboat (blog).

First of all I have to admit the photograph above is one I took quite a few years ago, so you may well have seen it before, but in the film Byzantium the beaches of Hastings are filmed quite a bit, so a decision? I thought about photographing the groyne on the beach where the other main character, played by Gemma Arterton, well, I shan't say what she was doing there, but she was playing a vampire... 😉 Anyway, the beach above, and some of the fishing boats there, was featured in the film too, and this photograph also includes the East Hill in the background. Very early in the film, when the 2 main characters Clara and Eleanor Webb (Arterton and Ronan) are about to enter Hastings, they cross the East Hill and the camera looks down into Hastings Old Town, I have shared quite a few photographs of similar images before, particularly when walking back across Hastings Country Park during recent 'lockdowns.'

Anyway, the destination of my walk was Rock-a-Nore, and when the footpath ended, and Rock-a-Nore Road enters into car parks, unless walking down to the beach and rocks, this is as far as one can walk, and this one (me) didn't fancy walking any further eastwards today, particularly as the tide was coming in now. So the view of the cliffs looking eastwards from Rock-a-Nore, and up on top there Hastings Country Park.

I hope you have all enjoyed your August Bank Holiday, stay safe folks!

Hastings to Bexhill Walk "The Musical"

I had to include this image at Pelham Beach because it is so amusing, an outdoor beach gym thingamabob and notice saying "This facility is closed" - Honest! 😂 Anyway, an eclectic mix of music, something that tells a story for each image: Walking From Hastings to Bexhill & Back The Musical, first link to YouTube. Oh yes, and I took these photographs earlier today, mostly...

My second image is, well you can see it, Hastings Pier, sadly closed until who knows when, and there was such hope for an expanding and exciting future at one time (for example, blog), but either the Administrators' ineptitude, incompetence and/or a stuffed brown envelope left it in the hands of Mr G, annoyingly; anyway, YouTube.

OK, I really should have posted the photograph I took of the Azur Pavilion, but it doesn't look great with all the shutters closed, so I posted this, if you've seen the film Byzantium, you'll know what I'm getting at, cue YouTube.

This wonderful building I have written about many times before, particularly detailed in this blog, and a highly appropriate song from YouTube.

And you really can hear the echo of the sea hitting the beach, and quite severely today too, off the sand cliffs here; Great song (for me anyway) at YouTube.

If you've walked this walk before you will be aware that this is the cliff side of Galley Hill, I did take a photograph of the road going up the hill, but it wasn't good, anyway cue YouTube, and I didn't run... By someone I had a bit of a crush on as a younger man, and who I would have been very happy to run up hills with in those days. 😉

So, here we are at Bexhill, and I own up, this wasn't taken today (as if you couldn't have guessed), but my brother calls me lots of things, maybe the best of which is 'Mr Blue Sky' (don't fall for that one 😉), as he says I regularly exhibit Blue Sky Thinking. As it was pretty overcast earlier I used this photograph as an exquisite image with plenty of blue sky! The De La Warr Pavilion (blog), championed by the 9th Earl De La Warr, however, his father, the 8th Earl De La Warr, turned Bexhill on Sea into the "Birthplace of British Motor Racing" from 1902, indeed, running up Galley Hill (website).

Anyway, my final piece of fun music @ YouTube, hope you enjoyed the musical! 😊

Is this another film based in Hastings?!?

This is getting strange, everyone seems to be wanting to be filmed in Hastings! First Film4, now a film starring Gemma Arterton (as photographed above on Hastings beach a few years ago for Byzantium 2012!) called Summerland... And maybe this is the film that the trucks and film unit are for in my earlier blog. We are popular!

Bottle Alley, Film Star!

I decided to have an early wander this morning, just before the sun rose, to find out what all the fuss was about with the new lighting in Bottle Alley (see video on earlier blog), and I was quite impressed, it certainly brightens up the place

Bottle Alley was built in the early 1930s, the 'Concrete King' Sidney Little being the designer, and forms the lower deck of the half-mile long promenade between award-winning Hastings Pier and Warrior Square Gardens, and very useful if raining heavily! The name comes from the use of recycled bottles of varying colours used within the concrete along the wall; for more information see the 1066 website.

Indeed, Bottle Alley was one of the Hastings locations for the film Byzantium (YouTube, about vampires, so it is a little gory - thus, warning). It was half filmed in Hastings (remember Pelham car park was packed with large motor caravans and trucks at the time, 2011 I seem to remember) and half in Cork. Always fun to see places you know on film, eg one of the stars, Saoirse Ronan in Bottle Alley above, pre-new lighting! 

Still places open in Hastings!

OK, the Castle and Smugglers Caves may be closed until the Spring, but there are still many places open during the winter in Hastings, so don't stay in!

The excellent Fishermen's Museum in Rock-a-Nore Road (website) now opens at 11am until 4pm for the winter; here the red ensign is being raised outside the museum to let you know it's open... Also open in Rock-a-Nore Road are the Shipwreck Museum, from 11am to 4pm, (website) and the Blue Reef Aquarium, from 10am to 4pm (website).     

Not to mention the nearby Flamingo Amusement Park (website), one of the less celebrated location stars of the film Byzantium (see link), where the vampire character 'Clara Webb' (Gemma Arterton) first set up her illicit business activity in a seaside town (the majority of which was filmed a few years ago in Hastings, a wee bit in Cork!), plus museums and art galleries (eg Hastings Museum & Art Gallery website), other amusement arcades, cinemas, restaurants and pubs, live music galore, parks etc etc... 

So, no reasons not to enjoy Hastings during the autumn and winter!