Recently, and it was a beautiful day as you can see, I walked the approximately 10 miles round trip just beyond Bexhill and back to Hastings. Starting off at the town centre, and an early sight is the Victorian gothic Grade II listed Palace Court, (Historic England website), 'eponymous' star of the film Byzantium.
Palace Court
Then I came to another beautiful art deco masterpiece at St Leonards, the tallest apartment block in Britain when it was built, and designed to replicate the Queen Mary ocean liner, also Grade II listed, Marine Court (Modernist Britain website).
Then underneath Marine Court, and just past the 1930s Azur Marina Pavilion (website), looking back at the storm encroaching pebbles from the beach on the lower promenade, and yet another 'star' of the film Byzantium, in which it 'played' an older person's residence.
Very soon I reached the Royal Victoria Hotel, originally called St Leonards Hotel, but its name was changed soon after Princess Victoria stayed here, shortly before she became Queen Victoria. I have written about the building in an older blog.
Walking on and one could almost be at the Cote d'Azur, almost... 😎
As we know, along the beaches on the seafront between Hastings and Bexhill, old and new fishing boats are aplenty, eg here at Bulverhythe.
I walked on westwards to just below Collington at the end of the promenade. Then on my return just to the west of Bexhll town centre, is a Clock Tower originally built to commemorate the 1902 coronation of Queen Victoria's son Edward VII, although it was not finished until 1904 (Public Sculptures of Sussex website).
Carrying on with my return journey and what do we see, but the De La Warr Pavilion, which I have often mentioned in my previous reports, eg blog.
The De La Warr Pavilion is a magnificent structure, built when art deco met the modern architecturally, and now is a great music venue, restaurant, exhibition site, you name it, indeed it is well worth a visit (website).
One of the purposes of the walk was to visit the reasonably new micropub in Bexhill, which I hadn't visited before, Brickmaker's Alehouse at 27 Sea Road, just down from the railway station, and on the other side (east) of the road. I shall not write anymore here about this lovely wee hostelry, but feel free to read the report in Steve the Beermeister's blog, cheers!
After a few drinks I set off back to Hastings...
The view back westwards once back in Hastings
Great day, feel free to copy my adventures, certainly drink at the Brickmakers! 😉
No comments:
Post a Comment