Observer Building redevelopment

http://observerbuildinghastingsconsultation.com/

Latest plans from Hassell Architects can be found by clicking here or on the image above. Please take a look at the presentation, which shows the progression of the designs to this point. Please also fill in our survey to let us know what you think.

The old Observer building is being redeveloped by Flint Development Group: a new force in the real estate world that puts people first. Revitalised and repurposed, it will provide student housing and much more:

• An exciting new concept shop / restaurant for Sussex food and produce
• A homegrown art-house cinema
• Activating the alley behind Claremont bringing an abandoned part of the Town Centre to life
• Public access viewing platform and cafe with breath-taking views

“We are rescuing one of Hastings’ most loved buildings, re-animating the America Ground and bringing students from all over the country and the world to Hastings.

Hastings Literary Connections

To coincide with the Hastings Literary Connections display in Hastings History House (from Saturday) a list has been compiled of the writers so far identified who are buried in the cemetery.

Many of the works are non-fiction, travel, scientific, religious, medical and autobiographies.  There are also poets  and playwrights.

• List of Writers in the Cemetery

• Moore, Frank Frankfort - a poet, dramatist, biographer, novelist, lived in St Leonards. [Author]
• Moore, Dr. George & Jane – Lived in Hastings at various times, and retired here.  Wrote poems and medical works. [Author]
• Shipton, Anna - In the years between 1855 and 1890 Anna Shipton published over twenty books on religious subjects, several running into two or more editions on both sides of the Atlantic.  She lived for some years in St. Leonards. [Author]

Priscilla MacBean–her story–DVD

 

£5 (P & P extra)  The proceeds will go towards insuring and maintaining the ‘Priscilla’.

From Hastings History House, 21 courthouse Street.

Don’t forget to look out her as you come down the Old London Road (on the left) or going up, look to the right.

The Story of the Hastings’ May Queen Pageants – 1934 - 2015

83 years is a long time and society has changed in many ways.
The May Queen Pageants of Hastings reflect the changes in culture and attitude, but have maintained the joy of youth.

The origins and evolution of May Queens, Maypoles and Garlands are explored along with the notable characters associated with the day.

Profusely illustrated: Crowns & Shillings £9.99

Help please – Biddy the Tubman And ?

Planning permission for Queensway Gateway withdrawn

Monday 22 June 2015

Council bosses have quashed permission for the £15m Queensway Gateway road to be built, it has been announced today (Monday, June 22).

A judicial review into the original permission, which was granted by the authority in February, was due to be heard on Thursday and Friday this week at the High Court in London.

Kevin Boorman, spokesman for Hastings Borough Council, said: “The High Court has already ruled that the majority of Mr Carlyle’s arguments are misconceived.

“However, we do accept that the report which went to our planning committee in respect of the Queensway Gateway road did not draw committee members’ attention to the policy regarding air quality. It should have done, and we apologise for this omission.

“We do not think that it is in the interests of local council taxpayers for us to continue lengthy and potentially costly legal debate and so we have agreed to reconsider the scheme again at a further planning committee meeting.

http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/local/planning-permission-for-queensway-gateway-withdrawn-1-6810969

To celebrate the bi-centenary of the Battle of Waterloo ……

There is a display in the History House (21 Courthouse Street) with an accompanying slide show.

The Duke of Wellington was posted to Hastings in 1806 in order to take command of the brigade of infantry. His troop was based locally and he stayed at 54 High Street, using this as his headquarters.
The Swan Inn (situated opposite 54 High Street) was used for a public dinner in his honour in April 1806.
Wellesley then travelled back to his place of birth in Dublin and married Catherine Lady Pakenham, bringing her back to Hastings, where they lived at Hastings House, a beautiful Palladian Mansion at the North end of Tackleway. The plot where Hastings House and gardens once stood is now occupied by Old Humphrey Avenue.

East Hill ‘Bunker Protest Picnic’.

There is to be another ‘Bunker Protest Picnic’.   The event will be on Sunday 28 June, from 1p.m – 4pm on the East Hill, just to the west of the Bunker.  (The site is a short walk from the top of the East Hill funicular railway in Rock-a-Nore, Hastings Old Town.)

The Picnic will be a fun occasion – open to all – to let HBC know how much those present (and those unable to make it) care about the desecration of Hastings Country Park and the threats it remains subject to, such as unauthorised treefelling and severe administrative carelessness.

Back in March, the Planning Committee of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) refused another retrospective application. The Vice-Chair of the Committee, Cllr Michael Wincott, said at that meeting:

“As some of you know, I proposed refusing the retrospective application in June of last year, and I’m very very pleased this has been recommended for refusal.  It’s long overdue.  Take it down.” [Applause]

Subsequently, an Enforcement Order was issued, ordering the owners (Rocklands Caravan Park) to demolish the building.

Game over?  No — anything but.

Detailed discussion of the case includes the Bahcheli Report for HBC, and itsAddendum. Responses included the Save Ecclesbourne Glen critique and theDetailed Comments. The Landslip was discussed in the Coffey Report and itsAppendices. The geotechnical experts have done a sequel — as yet unpublished.

The Country Park remains at risk of permanent blight.   For more information on the event, contact Save Ecclesbourne Glen (SEG).

From  http://hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/hottie/hot-topics/home-ground/country-park-bunker-protest-picnic

Robertson Street corner to Pier–new designs

http://www.hastings.gov.uk/decisions_democracy/voting_petitioning_having_your_say/consultation/current_consultations/whiterockpromenade/

Judicial review into Queensway Gateway road

A judicial review of the decision by Hastings Borough Council’s planning committee to grant permission for the £15 million Queensway Gateway road will be heard in the High Court on June 25 and 26.

The legal challenge claims that the authority should not have granted planning permission for the project as the road would breach national and EU laws on air pollution.

Developers were ordered to stop work on the Queensway Gateway road after the High Court agreed the judicial review could go ahead.

More at http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/local/judicial-review-into-queensway-gateway-road-1-6798541

OHPS 2015 AGM

Friday 12th June 2015
7 PM for 7.30

21 Courthouse Street, Hastings

Refreshments will be available after the meeting

Followed by
OHPS Projects : Past & Future
by Anne Scott

HPC May Newsletter Link

Click Newsletter - May 2015

Copy available for reading in the History House

Foundations for the Visitors’ Centre

George MacDonald – official unveiling of new plaque

Wellington Square
Saturday 2nd May, 2.30 PM

Edward Preston will be conducting a walk at the end of the ceremony.

George MacDonald came to Hastings in 1857 for health reasons and lived at 27 Tackleway in the Old Town. Whilst there he wrote his first prose book entitled "Phantastes". This work was later to inspire the likes of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

George MacDonald and family left Hastings for London in 1858. They were to return some ten years later with a somewhat larger family, now including 11 children. The family lived at Holloway House off Old London Road. Whilst at Holloway House MacDonald completed his book "At the Back of the North Wind"

He took an active interest in local activities and was founder of the Hastings & St Leonards Philosophical Society which was started in 1858 and gave lectures at the Public Hall in Hastings and the Assembly Rooms in St Leonards.

Fantasy

• Phantastes: A Fairie Romance for Men and Women (1858)
• "Cross Purposes" (1862)
• Adela Cathcart (1864), containing "The Light Princess", "The Shadows", and other short stories
• The Portent: A Story of the Inner Vision of the Highlanders, Commonly Called "The Second Sight" (1864)
• Dealings with the Fairies (1867), containing "The Golden Key", "The Light Princess", "The Shadows", and other short stories
• At the Back of the North Wind (1871)
• Works of Fancy and Imagination (1871), including Within and Without, "Cross Purposes", "The Light Princess", "The Golden Key", and other works
• The Princess and the Goblin (1872)
• The Wise Woman: A Parable (1875)
• The Gifts of the Child Christ and Other Tales (1882; republished as Stephen Archer and Other Tales)
• The Day Boy and the Night Girl (1882)
• The Princess and Curdie (1883), a sequel to The Princess and the Goblin
• The Flight of the Shadow (1891)
• Lilith: A Romance (1895)

Realistic fiction

David Elginbrod (1863; republished as The Tutor's First Love), originally published in three volumes

• Alec Forbes of Howglen (1865; republished as The Maiden's Bequest)
• Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood (1867)
• Guild Court: A London Story (1868)
• Robert Falconer (1868; republished as The Musician's Quest)
• The Seaboard Parish (1869), a sequel to Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood
• Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood (1871)
• Wilfrid Cumbermede (1871–72)
• The Vicar's Daughter (1871–72), a sequel to Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood and The Seaboard Parish
• The History of Gutta Percha Willie, the Working Genius (1873), usually called simply Gutta Percha Willie
• Malcolm (1875)
• St. George and St. Michael (1876)
• Thomas Wingfold, Curate (1876; republished as The Curate's Awakening)
• The Marquis of Lossie (1877; republished as The Marquis' Secret), the second book of Malcolm
• Paul Faber, Surgeon (1879; republished as The Lady's Confession), a sequel to Thomas Wingfold, Curate
• Sir Gibbie (1879; republished as The Baronet's Song)
• Mary Marston (1881; republished as A Daughter's Devotion)
• Warlock o' Glenwarlock (1881; republished as Castle Warlock and The Laird's Inheritance)
• Weighed and Wanting (1882; republished as A Gentlewoman's Choice)
• Donal Grant (1883; republished as The Shepherd's Castle), a sequel to Sir Gibbie
• What's Mine's Mine (1886; republished as The Highlander's Last Song)
• Home Again: A Tale (1887; republished as The Poet's Homecoming)
• The Elect Lady (1888; republished as The Landlady's Master)
• A Rough Shaking (1891)
• There and Back (1891; republished as The Baron's Apprenticeship), a sequel to Thomas Wingfold, Curate and Paul Faber, Surgeon
• Heather and Snow (1893; republished as The Peasant Girl's Dream)
• Salted with Fire (1896; republished as The Minister's Restoration)
• Far Above Rubies (1898)

Poetry

• Twelve of the Spiritual Songs of Novalis (1851), privately printed translation of the poetry of Novalis
• Within and Without: A Dramatic Poem (1855)
• Poems (1857)
• "A Hidden Life" and Other Poems (1864)
• "The Disciple" and Other Poems (1867)
• Exotics: A Translation of the Spiritual Songs of Novalis, the Hymn-book of Luther, and Other Poems from the German and Italian (1876)
• Dramatic and Miscellaneous Poems (1876)
• A Book of Strife, in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul (1880), privately printed
• The Threefold Cord: Poems by Three Friends (1883), privately printed, with Greville Matheson and John Hill MacDonald
• Poems (1887)
• The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, 2 Volumes (1893)
• Scotch Songs and Ballads (1893)
• Rampolli: Growths from a Long-planted Root (1897)

Nonfiction

• Unspoken Sermons (1867)
• England's Antiphon (1868, 1874)
• The Miracles of Our Lord (1870)
• Cheerful Words from the Writing of George MacDonald (1880), compiled by E. E. Brown
• Orts: Chiefly Papers on the Imagination, and on Shakespeare (1882)
• "Preface" (1884) to Letters from Hell (1866) by Valdemar Adolph Thisted
• The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: A Study With the Test of the Folio of 1623 (1885)
• Unspoken Sermons, Second Series (1885)
• Unspoken Sermons, Third Series (1889)
• A Cabinet of Gems, Cut and Polished by Sir Philip Sidney; Now, for the More Radiance, Presented Without Their Setting by George MacDonald (1891)
• The Hope of the Gospel (1892)
• A Dish of Orts (1893)
• Beautiful Thoughts from George MacDonald (1894), compiled by Elizabeth Dougall

Pier Opens 21st March 2016 – 950th Anniversary of Battle of Hastings

http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/local/hastings-pier-to-open-in-march-2016-1-6692437

Hastings Pier will not be opening this year as planned, it was announced this morning (Thursday).

Simon Opie, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Hastings Pier Charity, said the attraction will open for business on March 21, 2016.

“Almost all the work will be finished this year but not completed in time to open the pier during any of the traditional seaside trading months.”

The charity has ruled out opening the pier in the winter.

Completion is expected around October this year.