Hastings

18/19 August & 19/20 September 2007

Hastings is a dump. Sorry I cannot be more polite about it but that's how I saw it. The one aspect of Hastings that I saw most in evidence was the teenagers and the lack of police. During the night from my hotel room all I could hear was the shrieking and squealing of hysterical teenage girls, shouting of drunken youths and sirens from police and ambulance. Waiting outside a shop doorway to meet my son and kids in hoods wandering like they own the place, throwing bags of chips into the howling wind, to be scattered to all points of the pavements. Other kids on bikes, racing round roundabouts after dark, regardless of the swerving traffic. In one of the images below, immigrant youths trying to push each other into the stormy sea, disregarding the warning signs and the dangerous undertow. I have included a few images of the pier, itself closed down and locked off. It looks deadly, with warning signs on the shingle beach warning people to stay clear of "falling debris". This pier does not look like it will survive more than a very few winters, so I include it here maybe for posterity.

The seafront at Hastings has at least had plenty of attention paid to it. It look the part and presumably does the business but elsewhere, dilapidated B&B's, hotels and guesthouses crowd the front and rear streets. Loose fitting sash windows, rattling through the night, peeling paint flakes off the walls outside and seabird droppings covering the roof and side walls. I am glad I was only there to visit my grandson, to holiday there would be quite unthinkable. If it hadn't been for the association with a certain nearby invasion in 1066, this place would have disappeared into history eons ago. A resident told me that "this is the last hole on the south coast for "cheap" housing"!

1. Pub in the "olde town" 2. Street scene in "olde town" 3. Castle 4. High zoom shot of what looks like superstructure of a tanker near France 5. Castle from Beach.
6. Beneath the olde town, beach section. 7. Zoom of cliff tram from olde town

6. Pier 7. High zoom image of tanker near French coast 8. Seafront buildings 9. Cable Car East Cliff 10. RNLI Hastings 11. Mersey Class Lifeboat

12 & 13. Mersey Class Lifeboat 14 & 15. Fishing Vessels 16. Zoom shot of Cable Car

17 & 18. I left this in original Hi-Res so that you can "zoom" in on the maps

19. Rear of olde town street 20. Plaque on building in olde town 21. All Saints Street. 22. Looking back down All Saints Street. 23. RNLI from All Saints Street

All Saints Street (Some of these taken a month apart)

Still in the olde town (Lets face it, the new part is not even worth warming up the camera for!)

29, 30 Seafront & Pier. 31. Idiotic immigrant youths trying to push each other into the sea. 32 - 39 Seafront & Pier