With a classic pier and seafront to stroll along, new cafés and bars, and the glorious Seven Sisters cliffs nearby, Eastbourne on the East Sussex coast is having a renaissance, as Paul Miles discovers
Eastbourne is at the easternmost end of the South Downs National Park, where rolling chalk downland meets the sea. If you like hiking, or simply admiring dramatic coastal scenery, the location is hard to beat. The grassy 162m summit of the world-famous Beachy Head, with its precipitous chalk face and red-andwhite striped lighthouse at its foot, is less than an hour’s hike – or a short (summertime) bus ride – from the pebbly beaches of this Victorian seaside resort which was developed by the main landowner, the 7th Duke of Devonshire. Visitor numbers boomed with the arrival of the railway in 1849.
Today, there’s more to Eastbourne than a splendid setting, graceful 19th century architecture and its claims to be the sunniest spot in the UK. In recent years the demographic of this East Sussex town, long thought of as a retirement destination, has been changing. Priced out of neighbouring Brighton and Hastings, a new generation of homeowners is discovering its charms. As a result, new cafés and bars are opening, bringing a fresh youthfulness to the place. The Congress Theatre and the former Arndale shopping centre have undergone transformative makeovers. Meanwhile, the headturning art gallery, the Towner, with its multi-coloured exterior, is fast becoming one of the country’s leading galleries. Next year, it will host the 2023 Turner Prize.
FRIDAY PM A GRAND ENTRANCE
We arrive at The Grand Hotel, our accommodation for the weekend. This 152-room ‘white palace’ has been welcoming holiday-makers since 1875. The great and good have stayed here, from Winston Churchill to Serena Williams. Facing the sea, and a statue of the 8th Duke of Devonshire, the town’s mayor in the 1890s, the Grand is the centrepiece of Eastbourne’s western seafront. And it still lives up to its name. A doorman in a dogtooth waistcoat welcomes us cheerily. Check-in is swift and courteous. The hotel creaks with slightly faded grandeur. Dark wood furniture, swags and pelmets, a tinkling piano and the scent of huge lilies in the Great Hall evoke a cruise liner from a century back. Our large room has a terrace with sea views.
PEER AT THE PIER
We stroll along the seafront to the elegant Victorian pier, less than 15 minutes’ walk away, past the bandstand currently undergoing a £750,000 renovation. It’s tempting to stop at one of the beach-side cafés but we save our appetite for dinner. It’s a breezy day and a handful of people are ‘wing-foiling’, racing across the sea, seeming t
