WEST ST LEONARDS NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN
HUDG are assisting West St Leonards Forum to develop their Neighbourhood Plan. Initially the focus has been on the former Lido site for which HUDG produced a report, “An Alternative Approach”, to stimulate discussion and help residents focus on the issues that they considered to be important. A copy of that report can be read here.
SoCAD EVENT
On 5 April 2014 an empty shop in Priory Meadow became a temporary exhibition space. 20 architects from East Sussex presented their ideas for transforming Hastings. The concepts presented were a pro bono exercise indulging in a bit of blue-sky, what-if thinking for various sites around the town to stimulate local interest in urban design.
It certainly worked, well over a thousand residents turned up to the initial exhibition in Priory Meadow and the subsequent one in Hastings Trust’s premises on Robertson Street the following week.
The event was a joint initiative between Hastings Urban Design Group and the RIBA who encouraged their members to enter and helped fund the event.
Photos of the event in Priory Meadow can be seen here.
Illustrations of the design ideas presented can be seen here.
Queen’s Arcade (2 December 2022)
Following an application from HUDG in April 2021 the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has decided to add Queen’s Arcade, Hastings to the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. The building is now listed at Grade II. This should give an additional level of protection to the Arcade which forms an important part of Hastings’ Victorian ‘New Town’.
Opened in 1882, the Arcade is a fine example of a small town shopping arcade in typical Victorian style, largely unaltered from its original form with the exception of more modern security shutters at each end. A less common component to its prime commercial purpose of 16 shops to let is the first floor Assembly Rooms (now a dance studio) an important venue for the town in its day with its entrance in York Gardens. The Arcade adjoins the former Gaiety Theatre and Opera House (now the Odeon), also opened in 1882.