Chris New is in the middle of a busy year at The Stables Theatre in Hastings with three new plays and a busy teaching schedule. After graduating from RADA Chris enjoyed huge success in the West End, starring opposite Alan Cumming in the 2006 revival of Martin Sherman’s Bent for which he won an Evening […]
Once again courtesy of Derelict In The UK we bring you photographs of iconic and deserted buildings, this time St Leonards Parish Church. Standing grand on the St Leonards seafront, this beautiful building was completed in 1961 to replace its predecessor destroyed by a direct hit from V-1 ‘doodlebug’. It originally had structural building problems […]
Was Hastings cursed by the occultist Aleister Crowley? Much has been written about Aleister Crowley, the famous dabbler in ‘sex magick’. He reached the end of his days in a boarding house on The Ridge in 1947 – he’d run out of money and he’d run out of friends. The Victorian house known as Netherwood […]
Stuart Baillie finds out about the history of a building that has always intrigued him… I was standing on top of the East Hill at the weekend showing some friends who were visiting the town some of the landmarks of the area. They pointed west and asked, ‘what’s that?’ What they were asking about was of course Marine […]
Even today more than 30 years after it closed people still fondly remember ‘the old bathing pool’. It’s a place where memories were made. If this feature evokes some memories in you we’d love you to share them with us, or if you have old photographs we’d love to see them email us at tellmeyourstory@hastingsinfocus.co.uk […]
Spare a thought for Old Humphrey. In case you are wondering, Old Humphrey was one of the pen names used by George Mogridge, a very popular religious writer in the 19th century and who remains popular in some countries today. Alas, he is virtually forgotten in Hastings despite Old Humphrey Avenue just off All Saints Street […]
It was New Year’s Eve, 2019. I’d been reading about choosing a ‘word of the year’ rather than a ‘new year’s resolution’ – it would apparently help me to focus on what I wanted to create for myself during the coming year. So, after some consideration, palpitations and a hot flush, I chose the word ‘balance’! That […]
Hastings and St Leonards are full of quirky statues and historical artefacts, Tom McCann has been looking in to the history of some of them Erected in 1902, a year after her death and unveiled by the Marquess of Abergavenny, the town mayor and other famous locals, the statue of Queen Victoria in Warrior Square […]
Frustrated by the lack of recognition of the town’s rich musical heritage, music enthusiasts Andy Gunton, Jim Breeds and Tony Davis decided to do something about it and between them they’ve set up 1066 Music Blue Plaques and on Saturday the late punk rock and feminist icon Poly Styrene was the first to be commemorated. […]
