Anyone here from the Hastings (moving tomorrow 22nd)

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Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Well, mainly the Hastings and surrounding area, like St Leonards-On-Sea.

What I want to know is, what are the real crap areas to avoid if moving to that town, I know it used to have a bad name for chavs, druggies and drunkards down there years ago, last time I was there was in 1980, has the town improved, or got worse? Not that it can be much worse than any other coastal town in the UK, where there seem to be any number chavs and drug/drink rehabs located in the towns.

I know there are a lot of good points about Hastings, there is a lot of history there, great country parks, I belive there are 5 or 6 which are just a bus ride away, great coastal areas, excellent cycle routes, ancient woodlands for walking and loads of other stuff, it's just the crap areas I want to avoid moving to, I hope to be moving there around the end of next month, comments/opinions?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:21 am

Dunno, but I have been there, to the old town, and I doubt there are too many crap areas left. It is beautiful there.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Yeah, Hastings Old Town has some lovely old buildings, such as this old pub (a former pump house) from the late 15th century:

More about Old Town here for those who like ye olde worldy stuff:

http://www.hastingschoice.co.uk/HASTINGS-HISTORY/hastings-old-town/old-town-history.htm

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:34 am

It even sells Shepherd Neame so you won't notice that you have left Kent Laughing

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:17 am

I live a few miles away and visit regularly; my mate owns a hotel there but I can't ask him as he's in NZ on holiday so I'll do what I can.

There are some rough areas but I don't know the town well enough to say which but some things I do know :

It's still a very poor town, there are a lot of slum landlords letting nasty accomodation to DSS. Having said that, however, there is a lot of EEC money being put into it as a deprived area and it is definately "on the up".

Drugs - Hastings has a worse drug problem than a lot of places.

Employment - Due to the poor transport infrastructure, there is not a lot of quality employment there. If you live there and work elsewhere, expect a busy and lengthy commute (eg Brighton is 33 miles but will take 1-2 hours to drive there in the rush hour).

Population - it's proximity to the channel ports combined with it's abundance of cheap accomodation have lead to there being a lot of asylum seekers living there which some people might find offputting.

Property prices are a fair bit cheaper in Hastings/St Leonards than other towns in the area because overall, it's just not as nice.

Have you considered other South Coast towns in the area such as Bexhill,Eastbourne,Brighton,Worthing ?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:18 am

I lived in St Leonards for a year 1969-70. I loved it. There were loads of places to go and things to do. I went back last in the late 80's and what Eamonn says was true then. A lot of the old BB's had sold out and rented to inner-city councils so they could offload their housing problem.

The old town is still very nice so I am told. Parking and very heavy traffic was, and still is very bad. They rely almost entirely on summer season trade so the price of everything goes up.

The best bit is the proximity to other local areas really. Fairlight, where you can see France on a clear day and still quite wooded. Rye Harbour, they used to have a very good market on Thursdays. And Camber Sands, still one of my favourite beaches in the whole UK.

Hastings itself has the pier. There was a stone table in front, where king Harold (twas he! Laughing

) was supposed to have killed a wild boar in a feast at the Battle of Hastings. Castle with with a funicular ride. The beach was pebbles.
I remember they had a go-cart track and crazy golf on the beach. No doubt long gone. Sad

As for the sea front. If you like arcades, you'll be in clover. Confused

Hastings itself probably a bit of a curate's egg, the surrounding area still nice.

History corrected. Very Happy

Master Baiter Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 101

windypops wrote:

There was a stone table in front, where king Arthur was supposed to have killed a wild boar in a feast at the Battle of Hastings.

Just sticking my pedants hat on and waving my BPd qualification (Bachelor of Pedantry) ...

what was King Arthur doing at the Battle of Hastings ? Surely dead for centuries - may explain why Harold lost though. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:12 am

St Leonard's and West St Leonard's stations seem to attract the lower forms of pond life. Like any place it has its good and bad parts. You really need to visit first and get the feel for the place, take a walk around see if you got shot, stabbed or robbed. These are normally indications of a bad area. I always find Hastings to have a sort of run down feel to it, improvements have been made over the years, especially to the shopping area in the centre.
One saving grace is this :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/southerncounties/webcams/index.shtml
2nd row, second one in.....a webcam!!!!!

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:24 pm

M1d0r1 wrote:

what was King Arthur doing at the Battle of Hastings ? Surely dead for centuries - may explain why Harold lost though. Very Happy

Senior moment. Embarassed

Corrected. Laughing

Yes, the one that lost his eye and burnt the cakes. Very Happy

I'm sure every year, someone from the local council would splash a bit red paint on the stone table, to perpetuate the myth of a sacrifice having taken place.
I wonder if it's still there.

Master Baiter Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 101

windypops wrote:

Yes, the one that lost his eye and burnt the cakes. Very Happy

umm, sorry - burnt cakes was Alfred the Great, King of Wessex.

I'll get my coat ...

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:54 pm

Scam Patroller wrote:

Not that it can be much worse than any other coastal town in the UK, where there seem to be any number chavs and drug/drink rehabs located in the towns.

Now then, I live in a very nice coastal town in the south, and having previously lived in London, it has no more or less a % of scum bags as anywhere else!! Do be coastaltownist. Smile

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:31 pm

This could be the answer SP:
http://www.usonthebus.com/

They were talking about their experiences on the radio earlier. Funnily enough, they're living in St Leonard's now. Very Happy

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:40 pm

I ran a pub down by the quay in Hastings for a few weeks. I can tell you that they like a fight down there.
No guns, knives, bottles or glasses but plenty of chairs and tables. Some of the other pubs in the surrounding area are like that too. A lot of it is down to the Trawlermen - they come back from a long stint at sea and blow off steam by beating the shit out of people.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Thanks for all the comments, sorry, but despite your best efforts, you couldn't put me off moving there Laughing

, it's moving day tomorrow, St Leonards On Sea, here I come Cool

It only took 5 minutes on the phone to BT and our new phone will be switched on at 12:00pm on tomorrow, got the new phone number already, and my BT Broadband service will be active on Monday 25th, lets hope they stick to that date, until then, hopefully I can pick up a BT Openzone signal on my laptop as I have 240 free minutes remaining on that.

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:26 pm

A whole weekend without the ability to post? what will you do? do you think you can survive the withdrawl symptoms?

Good luck in St Leonards, hope it all goes smoothly.

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:55 pm

Excuse my USA ignorance, but what the hell is a "chav"?

*** BANNED *** Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 2021

We used to get a week in the social caravan every year in Winchelsea, the highlight of our holiday was going to Hastings for the day and going up the hill in that cable car thing, if i lived in Hastings i would have a season ticket for the cable car thing.
This was it.

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:58 am

Professor So And So wrote:

Excuse my USA ignorance, but what the hell is a "chav"?

I asked that question just a few weeks ago Laughing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav

Good luck with the move SP.....I hope you are very happy in your new home.

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 4:22 am

Thanks lotta. Now I understand. I'm a chav. Sad

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 7:51 am

Hope the move goes well, SP. Smile

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 8:23 am

He'll be dead by Monday.
Either that or some rough trawlerman's bitch.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

This is SP. By Monday he'll have a video of rough trawlermen in tutus.

All the best with the move SP. My sole experience of the area is Pontins in November. I seem to remember being a little chilly.

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 2:21 pm

@ Lotta - interesting that Wiki says that the term "Chav" originated up North. I read somewhere it actually came from Cheltenham, specifically the rather posh Ladies school there. Apparently the little darlings coined it as a derogatory term to describe the denizens of Cheltenham - "Cheltenham Average", or "Chav" for short.

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 5:26 pm

^^Cheltenham Average is the one I know, I only live about 20 minutes away from there and thats the accepted meaning around here.

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:16 am

This is an interesting thread. Hastings seems to be a of a shit magnet - poverty, DSS dumping area and all that and SP is moving there.

Is there a deeper meaning to this?

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