Competition: Bohemia leisure and cultural centre, Hastings

• COMMENT

Hastings Borough Council is recruiting a design team to explore leisure and cultural options for the Bohemia area of its town centre

The winner of the maximum £100,000 contract will complete an initial options appraisal for new leisure and cultural facilities within the 33ha Bohemia district immediately north of dRMM’s Stirling Prize-winning Hastings Pier.

The feasibility study is part of an ambitious comprehensive masterplan drawn up by the London Studio of Swedish practice White Arkitekter for the ‘underused and undervalued’ seafront area, which stretches from White Rock Theatre along Bohemia Road and includes the Convent of the Holy Child Jesus and Summerfields leisure centre.

In its brief, the council says: ‘Bohemia will be transformed through investment in the public realm, the reuse of a key seafront site, regeneration of open spaces, and new housing development, complemented by new leisure, cultural and tourism facilities. The development will be a game-changer, a celebration of the Hastings spirit, which builds on existing qualities and unlocks the potential of this part of town.

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/competitions/competition-bohemia-leisure-and-cultural-centre-hastings/10041660.article

Select Committee on Regenerating Seaside Towns and Communities The future of seaside towns Report of Session 2017-19 - published 4 April 2019 - HL Paper 320

Contents

Summary

Figure 1: Seaside towns possess unique assets, such as Eastbourne’s pier, which can be central to their regeneration

Chapter 1: A vision for seaside towns

The British seaside

Our vision

Box 1: Seaminster: a vision for how seaside regeneration should work

New Brighton – a regeneration model?

Chapter 2: Background and approach

Coastal communities: A unique set of challenges

Figure 2: Jaywick faces various challenges related to poverty, health, and infrastructure

Opportunities for regeneration

Figure 3: Dreamland in Margate is an example of a successful council-led regeneration initiative

Previous government intervention on seaside towns

Our work

Chapter 3: The economy of seaside towns

Tourism and the visitor economy

Digital skills&

Public realm

Tourism Sector Deal

Hospitality

Tourism VAT

The wider economy of coastal towns

Box 2: Case study—Brighton and Hove

Diversifying local economies

Creative industries and culture-led regeneration

Figure 4: The Turner Contemporary has been a central part of Margate’s cultural regeneration&#;36

Box 3: Seaside entertainment

Box 4: Culture-led regeneration

Ports

Connectivity

Transport

Figure 5: Coastal towns in rural areas, such as Whitby, often suffer from infrequent rail services

Box 5: Rail connectivity

Digital connectivity

Box 6: Connection

Chapter 4: Education and skills: stimulating an entrepreneurial culture

Educational attainment

Box 7: Teacher recruitment

Box 8: Case Study—Scarborough University Technical College

and Coventry University Scarborough Campus

Box 9: Education in coastal areas

Employment and skills

Box 10: Case study—Employment in Skegness60

Chapter 5: Housing, wellbeing and the built environment

Housing

Coastal erosion and flooding

Chapter 6: Support for regeneration—funding and delivery&

Successful regeneration

Leadership

Box 15: Principles for partnership and regeneration

Local Enterprise Partnerships

Government funding

UK Shared Prosperity Fund

Coastal Communities Fund

Supporting the regeneration of seaside towns

Box 16: Case study—Blackpool Pride of Place Partnership (PoP)

Coastal communities policy and national initiatives

Box 17: Enterprise Zones

Summary of conclusions and recommendations

Evidence is published online at https://www.parliament.uk/regenerating-seaside-towns and available for inspection at the Parliamentary Archives (020 712 3074).

[The Metro article shows a view of Hastings, below a comment on the success of Brighton and Bournemouth]

Chapmans galore - Cemetery update

New Stories

• Chapman, Alfred James - Fish Buyer of Hastings

• Chapman, Charles & Family - St Leonards’ Dairy Dynasty

• Chapman, Charles, wife & daughter - Builder, and one of the founders of Mount Pleasant Church

• Chapman, Henry - builder of Old Humphrey Avenue, Letting Agent, Landlord and The Hughenden Hall opened at 97 All Saints Street

• Chapman, Peter & Family - Solicitor; born and practised in Barbados

The Next Scheduled Cemetery Walks are

At 2PM on the 19th May & 7th July 2019

To arrange a Cemetery Walk
email Anne Scott

Works to Stade Family Amusement Park approved!

Controversial proposals to extend an amusement park on Hastings seafront have been approved by town planners.  The proposals for a range of works were granted planning permission by HBC’s planning committee at a meeting on Wednesday (March 6).

The approved works include adding an extra floor to the main park building, creating a new boathouse and jetty at the boating lake and extending the park’s boundaries by reducing the width of a footpath between the A259 and the beach.
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Before making a decision, the committee heard how the application was a duplicate of a previous item, which had been deferred due to concerns its description did not make it clear to a casual reader that replacing the footpath would extend the park’s boundaries.  This could have left the council’s decision open to a judicial review, councillors were told at a meeting in October.

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Petitioners were represented at the meeting by local resident Anne Scott, who voiced fears about the potential loss of open public space.

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Objectors had also raised concerns about the restructuring of the footpath, with some raising concerns about the path being gated off and closed to the public.

However a spokesman for the developer said this would not be the case and that access would remain ‘unobstructed’. The developer’s spokesman, architect Bernard Baker, also suggested the inclusion of a condition to preserve the visibility along the path by keeping plants under control in an attempt to allay objectors’ concerns . 

Following a short debate the proposals were granted planning permission with an additional condition relating to visibility of the footpath.

Read more at: https://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/politics/works-to-hastings-amusement-park-finally-approved-1-8839280

Harold Place Toilets

Town Centre Restaurant/Retail development available via a pre let

Location

The site is situated on the pedestrianised area of Hastings town centre at the intersection of Queens Road, Wellington Place and Harold Place. Nearby occupiers include Caffé Nero, Costa Coffee, Jempsons and other local and national traders.

Key Points

• Ideal Restaurant location - ideal underground toilets (extant) & community park
• Close to town centre and Seafront - with a view, coming from the station
• Guide Rent £50,000pa
• Potential for other uses/designs - see above
• 3 Storey accommodation possible stpp - simply, No!
• Available as a rental option only

Hastings & St. Leonards [Civic] Society's Open Meeting is on Monday 25 February, 6 pm start, at the White Rock Hotel (seafront meeting room on ground floor). 

http://hastingsandstleonardssociety.org.uk/event/open-meeting/

Main topic: The future of St. Leonard's Church and surrounding area, lead Chris Lewcock.

Free event. All welcome, but please advise hstlsoc@gmail.com in advance if you are attending so that we have idea of numbers.

“St Leonards Church is a key architectural landmark within Burtons’ St Leonards and for the whole Town. Sadly it is now physically unsound and closed for religious use. West of the Church are St Leonards Steps, a main pedestrian route from the West Hill Road area to Marina. Unfortunately the steps are gradually slipping down the cliff and also in danger of closure. East of the Church and below the Burton Family graveyard there is a weedy wasteland and a long-neglected development site. A sorry picture. Secure uses and a future for this Listed Gilbert-Scott Church and its surrounds can and must be found so that this becomes a seafront destination that the Town can be proud of.

Book Sale!!!!

Hastings History House

21 Courthouse Street

21st - 23rd February

The Famous Book Sale

The Brede Steam Giants - an Illustrated Talk

Saturday 9th November, 5PM

at

Hastings History House

21 Courthouse Street

Tickets £4

In the 1960s many of our Victorian and Edwardian engineering masterpieces were demolished.  Fortunately some survived, the Giants of Brede offer a chance to return to the ‘good old days’ and see the past in action!

http://www.hastingspierarchive.org.uk/

Posted on the Cemetery Website

• The Story of the Stone of Sacrifice, The Cross of Remembrance and the Screen Wall

• Cemetery History 1916 from the Hastings & St Leonards Observer (“How we bury our heroes”)

• The Mystery of Plot JB I Burials

• The Names on the Screen Wall

• Brown, Private Hugh H W - Born in St Leonards, enlisted in Canada. WW1 1918

• Proudfoot, James - Canadian, died 1939, last person buried in Heroes’ Corner before the Second World War?

Exhibitions & Talks at Hastings Hiastory House

Old Bathing Site. in West St Leonards.

West Marina Partnership (residents' group) have circulated the following e-petition regarding the former West Marina bathing pool site:

We the undersigned petition the council to to request: (A) that the Council does not proceed with proposals to erect 152 dwellings on its land at Seaside Road; and (B) that the Council actively and fully engages with the local community and other existing and potential recreational users of the site to develop an agreed plan for its future use.

More information on the Petition page  

Petition @:

https://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?id=12

MP’s petition against plans for solar panels in country park

At a meeting on Monday (January 7), councillors will be asked to consider whether to move ahead with the project to build solar farms at three sites in Crowhurst and Fairlight.

 The report

https://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s30591/Ground%20Mounted%20Solar.pdf

and, the accompanying business case

https://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s30651/High%20level%20business%20case%2007_01_19.pdf

In particular look at page 12 of the business case to see the location for the solar arrays.

Anyone wanting to sign Ms Rudd’s petition should click here.

Read more at: https://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/environment/hastings-and-rye-mp-s-petition-against-plans-for-solar-panels-in-country-park-1-8756997

New Stories from the Cemetery

• Boucher, Thomas - “a many sided local celebrity” greengrocer, theatrical agent, actor, fireman,swimmer, stuntman………

• Broughton, Joshua & Harriet Mary Ann -retired to Hastings, where their daughter Alice married Henry Blackman, of Upfield & Sons

• Graves Family - moved from Kent to become a ‘local’ family

• Graves, Charles Atkins - landscape artist & drawing master

• Trimming Family - two generations, with connections to Ebenezer Chapel, in two graves. Son John built in Clive Vale and later emigrated to Canada with some of his family.