EAST-BOURNE AGAIN ?

November 2024. Eastbourne.

With an hour till GBG newbie No. 2 opens, a short break from pubs as I take a look at the fortunes of East Sussex’s retirement town.

I’d nipped in the Towner, where the exterior was better than a gallery with a single free (un-ticketed) gallery, and left inside 15 minutes.

Being a larger shopping centre than, say, Bexhill, Eastbourne suffers from the rundown of the High Street,

but without Sheffield’s student population hasn’t had the same sort of bounce back from food courts and specialist coffee shops.

I had a gorgeous black Americano in Georgio’s (Motto “we prefer cash”),

the inevitably charming young waitress saying “This’ll warm you up !”. Young people will save the world.

Mild English weather and a multicultural array of independent restaurants along Terminus Road’s splendidly towering buildings.

though sadly Notarianni’s hasn’t survived COVID.

At the end of Terminus Road you reach one of the UK’s underrated piers,

another chance for me to wish I’d skipped fish and chips at the Lamb in favour of noodles.

But by now I’m after ice cream, a very specific gelateria, and at the spot where I stayed in the central Travelodge (R.I.P.) for £19 a decade ago, I finally spot it…

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

28 thoughts on “EAST-BOURNE AGAIN ?”

  1. “At the end of Terminus Road you reach one of the UK’s underrated piers”.
    Yes, ‘peerless’ in my opinion. Or ‘sans pareil’ had it been on the other side of the Channel.

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      1. Dave,
        I’m wondering if there’s the demand for a Good Pier Guide.
        From my travels these past fourteen months I know that Cromer’s is excellent because it offers a pint of proper beer before the 10.53am departure for Norwich, Brighton’s and Eastbourne’s are very nice and Swanage’s charges admission although I’ve no idea what for.
        Can you recommend any piers in the US ?

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      5. Yes, I thought you did things big over there.
        Five years ago I stayed yards from Ambleside Pier, much smaller than most piers but that’s because it’s inland.

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      8. I think Caroline of Kendal, who has met up with the PubMen occasionally, has gone swimming from Ambleside Pier but maybe not from any coastal ones.

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      9. Well, as we’ve gone off the topic of Eastbourne, I shall add that George Orwell on the road to Wigan Pier ( the A449 ) halted in Penkridge at 4.30pm for a cup of tea in “a tiny frouzy parlour with a nice fire, a little wizened oldish man and an enormous woman about 45 with tow-coloured bobbled hair”. He’d have missed that had the pubs been open.

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  2. I wonder what people did for a living in Eastbourne in the past. It is a lovely town, apparently the one with the least rainfall in the UK, but there is not much in the way of economic activity.

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      1. Morten,
        “I wonder what people did for a living in Eastbourne in the past”. A century ago my father’s Aunt Liz worked for a photographer in Eastbourne. Before the sea was invented they toiled on the land in Devon.

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      3. In all seriousness, it only occurred to me yesterday, when Mrs RM was talking about our German trips, that we do have an astonishing advantage over most of Europe with our coastline. I’m sure there’s Germans that have never seen the sea (same with the USA).

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  3. We once booked a night there on the same day as the air show ,by accident -we were just there for my birthday.We had a lovely time especially as we were in a seafront hotel & could sit on their terrace with a drink & see all the action
    Pauline

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      1. Cf Cromer. Red arrows do a display in Carnival Week most years. And if you like fireworks there’s a display on New Year’s Day when they’re set off from the pier & can be watched from the whole sea front.

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