7th Tower Beer Festival 23-25 February 2024

By Steve the Beermeister: 

Indeed, commencing 11.00 this lunchtime and running until 23.00 on Sunday 25th February, is the 7th Tower Beer Festival, which will be held, strangely enough, at The Tower, 251 London Road, St Leonards TN37 6NB (facebook). There will be over 20 cask ales (see pump clips in the image above for a hint of what ales will be available) and 7 real ciders for your enjoyment.

Enjoy folks, and cheers to Louisa! 🍻

Funny, often truthful: Mark Steel in Hastings

My brother recently told me about this radio programme (Mark Steel's In Town - Hastings BBC Radio 4), recorded when Mark Steel visited Hastings over 4 years ago, I'm guessing it was at the White Rock, please feel free to correct me if you were at the recording, and I'm presuming incorrectly. Indeed, Rod has since suggested it was likely at St Mary in the Castle, which reminds us how much we're missing St Mary in the Castle now, sadly, but cheers Rod. Anyway, if you haven't heard it, it is amusing, has many elements of truth, twisted a wee bit for humour at times, obviously, but worth listening to for a laugh, enjoy! 😁

Awards for Hastings Beaches

I am pleased to share that Hastings and St Leonards beaches have won awards (HBC website), that is, Pelham Beach and Marina Beach have both "been given Seaside Award status... for the high standard of facilities the beaches have to offer visitors to the seafront." In addition, Marina Beach has retained its Blue Flag status which "recognises beaches for being clean, safe and having excellent water quality." 

For more information about Blue Flag, which covers 50 countries, go to their website.

Please note that I took the photograph above from Pelham Beach early one morning, I tend not to take photographs of our beaches during daylight, but do like this image.

 

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! 

Congratulations to the Tower!

By Steve the Beermeister:

Congratulations again to The Tower for being chosen as CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) South East Sussex Pub of the Year 2019! The Tower is situated on the corner of London Road and Tower Road, Bohemia, Hastings & St Leonards TN37 6NB, and I revisited on Tuesday, during which visit I congratulated Louisa the landlady, and had a few pints, of course! 

6 ales, including 2 regulars (Dark Star 4.7% APA and 3.8% Hophead), and a similar number of real ciders, and usually a perry too, are available. I concentrated on the 2 guest ales in the photograph above, Manchester-based Bootleg (website) Cheeky Monkey (4.2%), and I could only ask for it using my standard 'Northern' accent, sadly not appropriate here as it is basically South Yorkshire, sorry peeps in other parts of the North! I've seen Cheeky Monkey described as a dark ale, but to me it appeared more like an old-fashioned best bitter with a nice deep colour, and quite a good bitter too. But I mostly drank yet another an old favourite, Oakham Citra (4.2% - website), regular readers will realise I love the Citra hop, and Peterborough-based Oakham Ales is an excellent brewer too, pale, grapefruit, dry and bitter, quality as ever!

The other 2 guest ales were both darker beers, the Staffordshire-based Titanic (website) Plum Porter (4.9%) is excellent, and North Yorkshire-based Great Heck (website) Voodoo Mild (4.3%) is pretty good too, though I didn't drink either on the day, but have tried them both before!

Full Pints!

The two regular ales are from local brewer Dark Star (website), though now owned by Fuller's of West London, whose brewing business is to be taken over by Japanese group Asahi (blog), so who knows what is going to happen to the Dark Star ales! At the moment, their Hophead (3.8%) is being brewed in London and all other Dark Star beers, including their American Pale Ale (APA - 4.7%) are still being brewed in Sussex; these cost a good value £3.10 and £3.20 a pint at the Tower; the other ales cost £3.20 a pint (Cheeky Monkey and Citra), £3.30 a pint for Voodoo Mild, and £3.50 a pint for the Plum Porter. Also, a you can see in the photograph immediately above, lined oversize glasses are used, so you always get at least a full pint, great value!

Once again, congratulations to Lou and The Tower, and cheers m'dear!