John Burke's Hastings, August 1999
Hastings Old Town |
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| Saturday 31 July 1999
Ok, so we are settled in at the Lionsdown and we are now reminded that it is dinnertime and
it is a long time since breakfast!
We start off the short walk down the High Street down into Hastings, in search of something to
eat and drink. The street is lined with old buildings, some private houses, some are shops and some
are guest houses. There were many antiques shops, a couple with collections of old Dinky and
Matchbox model cars. |
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Hastings parish church, taken from the High Street and looking across a memorial
garden that took up the space created when a German bomb destroyed a pub and two cottages with
the loss of many lives in the Second World War. It was the first action to affect Hastings
directly and the site has been a memorial ever since.
Hastings has been no stranger to war and invasions as it is drummed into the minds of all
English children; the Battle of Hastings in 1066. However, as we shall see, Hastings itself
was not the site of the battle... |
| We reach the bottom of the hill and come to George Street, which, together
with the High Street makes up the main part of the "Old Town". On the corner is Fagin's Diner,
and when we can drag the two women away from having a sneak preview of George Street itself
(extreme left!) we'll nip inside!
Ahhhhhhhh... scones with jam and cream and beautifully creamy strawberry milk
shakes, which came with a jug containing almost two glasses worth of pink nectar! |
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Somehow I don't think I'm going to slim much this week...
The camera didn't like the contrast much as we were in front of the window!
This should be seen as more of an advantage than a disadvantage - the bad news
is that there are more photos of us later... |
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George Street. The chess set filled a small square under the cliff and
was popular with youngsters.
Fran and Mum wanted to know if there was a similar large set of draughts (checkers - whatever...)
More antique shops, half-timbered ancient pubs bookshops and art shops rub
shoulders with cafes, hardware and greengrocers' shops along this street. |
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Converging streets in the town centre mean lots of
wedge-shaped buildings! |
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