Jobs and Apprentices Fair in Bexhill Tomorrow.

There will be a Jobs & Apprentices Fair on Friday the 21st of March 2025 from 10.30am to 3.30pm at the iconic De La Warr Pavilion (blog) in Bexhill (website). You can turn up on the day, but they recommend registering at the website in advance. They will be catering for people looking for a first or new job, people returning to work, and people wanting to learn new skills. Please note there will be a quiet time between 2.00 and 3.30pm for d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse visitors. Further information at the website. Happy job hunting folks!

Nicer News & Weekend Update

Nicer news? Well, the iconic De La Warr Pavilion (blog) reopens today, a fitting celebration of its 85th anniversary, and will be open until the 3rd of January, all being well. Then it will be closed until the 16th of January 2021 for essential maintenance; for more information about what's on and other details, please go to their website.

I found this image on the Courthouse Cooperative Hastings facebook page, which only goes to prove that some of us are trying to make the best of a bad job, and are actively promoting shopping locally too (blog), indeed, very worthwhile...

However, having trouble parking in the old town this weekend? Well, that could be partly due to much of the Rock-a-Nore car park being closed off for repair, consequently, if wishing to park nearby and what remains of that car park is full, you can either park up Harold Road and walk down, or use the Pelham Beach car park, but...

The west end of the Pelham Beach car park has been closed the last few days, and you guessed it, if you haven't already visited, it's not looking like this (empty, above), but has numerous people testing for COVID-19... Sorry, but I had to say something about the COVID-19 Crisis and I had been so positive in this blog, but it's not anywhere near as good in Hastings as it was when I wrote this blog just a month ago, sadly.

Darrell Gale, Director of Public Health for East Sussex, reports that the "number of people with new cases of Covid has doubled in the Hastings area" and is rising sharply in Rother too. The figures look worryingly like we may be heading towards Tier 3, despite the many months of being sensible in Hastings and its environs, and it appears that teenagers of secondary school age are now the super spreaders, the incidence being highest in that section of society locally, and regionally.

If you do want to be tested for COVID-19, you need to pay for it to be done privately, unless you either have a high temperature, have a new continuous cough, have lost your sense of smell or taste, been asked to get a test by the council or to confirm a positive test, or are taking part in a Government Pilot Project (not here as far as I'm aware), then you can get a free test. Go to the Government website for more details or to book a test, which leads you to a link where you may book a test, for example in the Pelham Beach car park...

Look after yourselves folks, remember to wash your hands regularly, maintain social distancing of 2 metres whenever possible, and wear face coverings were appropriate.

Please be careful!

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! 😊

A Virtual Walk from Hastings to Pevensey Bay

I shall start this virtual walk, mostly along the seafront from east to west, from the Old Town and Rock-a-Nore Road, with this photograph taken close to Hastings Fishermen's Museum (blog), please feel free to join me, and I assure you you won't get tired, physically tired anyway. 😉 So we can wander along here, with the sun behind us, and to our left, in the early part of the walk, past that well known landmark, the Stacey Marie (blog), past numerous chippies and pubs to the right, and world famous Hastings Adventure Golf Courses to the left, yes! World famous indeed, with World Championships being held here most years (eg blog), sadly not this year though, understandably, because of the Coronavirus crisis, but in our walk reaching...

... over on the right, and nearly 200 years old, is St Mary in the Castle, with its foundation stone laid in 1825, and construction completed by 1828. The church was part of a larger project, Pelham Crescent, and with a shopping arcade below that was strongly influenced by the fashionable Burlington Arcade in London. The building is quite magnificent, and more information and photographs of the inside can be seen at this blog, although you should try to visit when things get back to normal, if you haven't already been inside it would be well worth it! You'll also realize from the image above it was taken very recently during the 'lockdown' thus eerily quiet.

Onwards to the west we go and reach one of the main stars of the film Byzantium (trailer), indeed, there are many Hastings landmarks we can recognize in the film, half being filmed here and half in Ireland. Anyway, we pass what was originally the Palace Hotel, built in 1885-86, and now Grade II listed Palace Court over to our right. You will see from this blog that I regularly enjoy walking along the seafront, although more recently Hastings Countryside Park Nature Reserve, one of our regular local award winning parks, check out this blog, but I digress, and virtually...

Virtual Hastings Pier

Maybe not what you expected to see as we reach Hastings Pier, but what the second phase was planned to be when Friends of Hastings Pier put in a bid to move the Pier on from phase 1, regrettably there having previously been no movement towards the second phase by Hastings Pier Charity before they went into administration. This is the plan devised by the architects dRMM, with their previous phase 2 plan having included a sliding canopy that would have moved along the length of the Pier. However, this updated second phase plan was to ensure the Pier would remain a 'sustainable community asset' (dRMM) and was designed just before the Pier was suspiciously sold to a private bidder, and includes a modern pavilion similar in construction to the Eden Project, which is another dRMM success story. Sadly, the Pier is rarely open now, from even before the Coronavirus crisis, as local folk will already be well aware.

You can see many blogs (for example) I've written about Hastings Pier, the potential there was for it to be developed, and the dubious result, but I'm past that now, and we are about to reach Marine Court; you will have come to realize that I have written a few recent blogs with this virtual walk in mind. 😏 Indeed, I wrote a recent blog about the early 'postmodern' Grade II listed Marine Court, which was built in the 1930s and links Art Deco with Modernism, a wonderful take on the Queen Mary ocean liner, and was the tallest apartment building in Britain of its time.

Oops! On we go, nearly missing the Royal Victoria Hotel, just to our right, which was built in the early 19th century, and was originally called the St Leonards Hotel, a focal point for then 'up and coming' Burtons' St Leonards, the brainchild of architect James Burton, and later developed by his son Decimus (much more information at the Burtons' St Leonards Society website). Also, to our left, over the beach, would have been St Leonards Pier, had we been walking past in the late 19th century and until it was demolished in 1951 following fire and bomb damage in World War II, and storm damage that year. But this is a virtual walk, so please feel free to have a look at a previous blog about St Leonards Pier, including early 20th century photographs.

We shall now continue on along the seafront, and I had to include the photograph above because I love those houses over there with the balconies, with their Mediterranean 'feel' and what I call Hastings very own Côte d'Azur, but then I do have a pretty good imagination. Anyway, let's carry on our way to...

... Bulverhythe, which was once an 'official port' of Hastings, and became a 'limb port' of the Cinque Ports in 1359 following the order of King Edward III. It was a larger 'haven' than the Priory Valley, which had been the major Hastings port when the Normans invaded and hence the castle being built above it, and consequently Bulverhythe became an important port for the town (Hastings Chronicle). All that is left of Bulverhythe now are the ruins of the old church and what could be argued to be the oldest pub in Hastings, The Bull Inn (blog). Whatever, that is an argument that could go on and on, and I thank my friend John Hodges (R.I.P.) for his advice and sharing of local knowledge with me. Also, this is the border of the Combe Valley Countryside Park, which is on the edge of Hastings Borough with half of the area owned and farmed privately, the rest owned by Hastings, Rother and East Sussex councils.

Ah, so what shall we do now? Well, I want us to make a slight detour northwards along the Combe Haven, but we shall first have to cross the railway and A259, please come along with me. It's not too far off our path, and visiting the Sussex Wildlife Trust's Filsham Reedbed nature reserve always helps me to relax, it is always so peaceful. I shan't dwell on this now, but if you'd like to join in with the detour, please have a look at my last visit here towards the beginning of the 'lockdown' (blog).

If you'd like, and we're not too early, we could have a venture into the Brickmaker's Alehouse when we reach Bexhill, but it's probably better to drop in for a drink on the way back, when we may well need a virtual drink. However, fortunately I've visited here before 'lockdown' so please have a look at the Steve the Beermeister blog for more about this great little micropub. The Brickmaker's has had many previous incarnations, but it is named because it had once been run by Lunsford/Ashdown Brickworks. But, maybe we should go elsewhere for a coffee and cake now...

... and the obvious delightful venue for coffee and cake in Bexhill on Sea is another wonderful Art Deco/Modernist building, the De La Warr Pavilion, now definitely be aware of why I've been writing about local buildings recently, notably this blog, in this instance! Much more at the blog if you'd like to know more about this iconic 1930s architectural masterpiece, but for now we're going there for coffee, unless that isn't your choice of beverage. Whatever we have to drink, they sell decent cakes as well, quite sizeable too, my brother and I often share a piece when we sit out on the first floor balcony, so I suggest we do the same, or maybe just go for a piece each cut in half so that we both have 2 different cakes. Let's go for it! 😉 You get credits for each hot drink on a 'loyalty card' too for a 'buy 9 get one free' offer, and sitting on the balcony provides us with a great view of the seafront, what's not to like?

After soaking in the rays on the balcony, and enjoying our small repast, we shall set forth on the way to Pevensey, but, if we hadn't stopped in Bexhill, we would very likely have now had a pot of tea or a beer, depending on the time, at the Cooden Beach Hotel (blog), another 1930s building, although very different in style. But we are heading for Pevensey Bay, and it'll take a bit of virtual effort as mostly shingle beach for the rest of the way, unless the tide is out, and the we can walk on sand more, so let us presume the tide is virtually out for an easier walk and we can reach our third delightful 1930s Art Deco meets Modernist building, and one with a slightly risqué past, The Sandcastle (blog), which sits on the beach handily, so it cannot be missed!

If you'd like to find out more about the intriguing past of The Sandcastle please have a read of the blog, because it does have an interesting history, but I thought we'd come away from the beach now for a drink in Pevensey, we should be ready for that virtual pint of Harveys Sussex Best before making our way back to Hastings. And where better to enjoy our well deserved drinks than at The Lamb Inn (website), one of the oldest pubs in the country, dating back to 1180, cheers!

It is a long walk back too, but a beautiful day in which to enjoy the gorgeous coastal scenery, the 1930s architectural delights, and a beer or two (or whatever you'd prefer to drink, of course), and probably pop in to the Brickmaker's Alehouse on the way back too. I also mention these pubs because it is now 8 weeks since we have been allowed to go for a drink in a bar, where did those 8 weeks go?!?

I hope you enjoyed our virtual day out, cheers, and look after yourselves!

Marine Court

The image of Marine Court coming out of the mist like a majestic liner in the Atlantic Ocean is what its architects, Kenneth Dalgleish and Roger K Pullen, would have been very proud of, because it was designed very much with the Cunard Liner, the Queen Mary, in mind! The Queen Mary entered commercial transatlantic service in 1936 (Modernist Britain website), the same year that Marine Court was designed and building commenced; construction was completed in 1938.  Marine Court is situated at the seafront at St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings TN38 0DZ.

*Image thanks to Modernist Britain

Further to my recent blogs about The Sandcastle in Pevensey Bay (blog) and the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea (blog), regular readers were very likely wondering when I would get to the third, even more local, building that pioneered the age when Art Deco architecture coalesced with the Modern, using Art Deco design and Modernist materials, a steel frame construction and concrete and glass, indeed Postmodernity before its time! Marine Court is 14 storeys and 170 feet high, and was the tallest apartment block in the country when it was built in the 1930s. 

Recent Image

As we know from history, soon after in 1939, World War II was declared, and the building was requisitioned by the Government, servicemen and women were billeted in Marine Court, guns were emplaced on the balcony, and the basement was used as an air raid shelter, it had had insufficient time to develop as the promised 'holiday retreat' by the coast. During the war Marine Court was damaged by bombing at the eastern end (the prominent end in the images here), and restoration of the building commenced in the late 1940s. The building has since incorporated the obvious accommodation purposes, restaurants, galleries and shops, and even a nightclub, and on the 9th of November 1999 it was eventually Grade II Listed (Historic England website).

We are very lucky to have not just this wonderful local monument to Modernist Art Deco architecture, but 2 other glorious monuments nearby in Bexhill and Pevensey.

*The second image is with thanks to Modernist Britain, edited by me for this blog, both of the other images are mine, thank you very much, copyright me! 

De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea

The De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill On Sea is known as an "iconic Modernist building" which was created to be a "democratic space for art, culture and recreation" and championed by Herbrand Sackville, the 9th Earl De La Warr (DLWP website). De La Warr (20 June 1900 to 28 January 1976) inherited his title when his father died whilst on active service in 1915, and became the first hereditary peer to join the Labour Party; he was just 23 years old when he became a junior minister in the first ever Labour Government in February 1924. Later, in April 1933 and as Mayor of Bexhill, De La Warr proposed a scheme for an entertainment hall/pavilion, which received overwhelming support from the people of Bexhill, and a loan of £70,000 was obtained from the Ministry of Health to cover the cost of the project (Discover Bexhill website).

RIBA were asked to hold a competition for the building design, which was announced in The Architects journal in September 1933, and which received 230 entrants. The same journal in February 1934 declared the winner of the £150 first prize to be the architects Serge Chermayeff (8 October 1900 to 8 May 1996) and Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 to 15 September 1953). Chermayeff was a Russian born British citizen who had been practicing as an architect for 3 years when Mendlesohn joined him as a partner in their own firm in 1933. Mendlesohn had been practicing as an architect in Germany but, with the rise to power of the Nazis and growing antisemitism, his assets were seized and he was excluded from the Prussian Academy of Arts and struck off the German Architects Union; he had fled to Britain in 1933.

The design was a blend of Art Deco style integrated with Modernist materials and construction techniques, indeed, the first Modernist public building. Mendelsohn had a passion for the use of concrete and glass with a welded steel frame which was unprecedented before his arrival to this country, and he was lauded by many of his British peers. This 'passion' ensured that Mendelsohn became "an integral part in spearheading the modernist movement throughout the world" (Arch Daily website). 

So, the De La Warr Pavilion really is 'iconic' and, if you haven't already visited, you should think about going as soon as the current Coronavirus crisis is over, I certainly will be there asap. There is an excellent restaurant on the first floor, and I love sitting on the balcony, drinking coffee, and enjoying the view over the Channel, roll on!