haStingS Oranges and Lemons
Photo by alex Leith The 9.44am Hastings train pulls out of the station and thus begins one of the nicest 50-minute journeys you can make by rail from <strong>Lewes</strong>. And one which is almost guaranteed to be quicker than by car, as the A27 hits the Bexhill buffers. My journey is to a much mythologised and much misunderstood town, too far from London to be a <strong>co</strong>mmuter town. But close enough to have a familiar London overspill, for good and ill. Down the glen-like valley from <strong>Lewes</strong>, into and back out of Eastbourne, and as you hit the <strong>co</strong>ast, there <strong>co</strong>mes the hypnotic litany of stations made real: Hampden Park, Pevensey & Westham, Pevensey Bay, Normans Bay, Cooden Beach, Collington, Bexhill, St Leonards Warrior Square and Hastings. The many times I’ve been through by rail, I’ve never actually got off at St Leonards Warrior Square. But chatting to Juliet Harris, born and bred St Leonards resident, I dis<strong>co</strong>ver it deserves far more than being an overlooked adjunct to Hastings. “It’s like a teeny London borough, more diverse than Hastings proper”, and though not the new Notting Hill-on- Sea touted by some, it does indeed have a thriving arts <strong>co</strong>mmunity and a welter of se<strong>co</strong>nd-hand shops. Plus, she tells me, a Russian, an Armenian and an up<strong>co</strong>ming Transylvanian bar. And there are the kind of old-fashioned greengrocers, haberdashers and other stores that have been gently nudged out of <strong>Lewes</strong>. “Though every other person I meet does seem to be an aspiring artist.” To get a flavour, Juliet re<strong>co</strong>mmends a meander up from the faded 1930s grandeur of Marine Court (fondly known as the Marina), the Arts Forum and Bar Blah, and around the Norman Road, Kings Road, London Road nexus. There are some truly fine eateries, worth the journey time alone – the St Clement’s restaurant at the top of Norman Road, an excessively good French restaurant, more than matches anything <strong>Lewes</strong> can currently offer. St Leonards also does things differently in a way <strong>Lewes</strong>ians would applaud – such as the creation of the “Wonky WI”, which brings down speakers about Stitch and Bitch sessions, rarely makes jam, and certainly never sings Jerusalem. If I had got off, she also would have re<strong>co</strong>mmended a shufti at the Council-preserved Banksy scribed on the sea front in 2009, and a lunch at the Love Cafe, similarly endowed with a massive local Ben Eine-pixellated graffiti image of Prince Charles, that is now a local landmark. But I stay on the train, planning to return for St Leonards next time, and head down to Hastings Old Town via the modernity of the Priory Meadows shopping centre. Occupying what used to be the cricket ground in the heart of Hastings – with views up to the Castle that must have made for a fine place to while away a Sunday - now <strong>co</strong>mmemorated with a <strong>co</strong>pper cricketer, lofting a shot towards neighbouRs (yes, gaze jealously once more <strong>Lewes</strong>) M&S and Waterstones. The oldest parts of Hastings lie over to the east. Around the Rock-A-Nore there are of <strong>co</strong>urse the classic fish & chip shops, a fiercely fought <strong>co</strong>ntest between local fishmongers, and the largest beach-launched fishing fleets left in the <strong>co</strong>untry. And it’s here that new developments may draw more future <strong>Lewes</strong> footfall. The most <strong>co</strong>ntentious battle for years has been over the <strong>co</strong>nstruction of the new Jerwood Gallery on the Stade. A proposal that aroused strong passions – with local people firmly for or against – and a heady brew of <strong>co</strong>uncil politics, local business clashes, parking <strong>co</strong>ncerns and multimillion investments. But that is now behind them and with the opening scheduled for mid-March, the broad <strong>co</strong>nsensus is for it to succeed. Will it lead to the hoped for renaissance for the town? If people do make their first visit, drawn by the Jerwood, they will find some fine pubs in the Old Town – the Swan, the Jenny Lind and the First in Last Out – and a sauntering mix of se<strong>co</strong>nd-hand bookshops and cafés along George Street. Plus the eccentric and glorious Electric Palace Cinema, which <strong>Lewes</strong>ians can only look at with lust. As I wander back by the twittenesque pathways over West Hill and Hastings Castle, and gaze out over the sea and the glory of the mix of fun-fairs, fish & chips and history, I can’t help thinking: <strong>Viva</strong> Hastings. <strong>Viva</strong> St Leonards. Rob Read 75