November 2026. Hastings.
One last day in Rye before heading back to Cambridge, and despite the lure of Lewes and Ashford, Mrs RM picked a return to Hastings for lunch.
Rather like Ramsgate, you can head off from the station in a multitude of directions and be surprised.
Not everyone was as impressed with Cornwallis Gardens as I was.
The highlight of the 10 minute crawl up towards Bohemia and the town museum is the giant duck,
which I assume the owners have acquired by legal means.
I’ve noted the (free) Museum a dozen times leaving the station and thought “Must do that“, but of course it’s easier to cross the road to the pub.
I’m a keen observer of museum design, particularly the social history ones that sprouted up in the Millennium.
Hastings is an exemplar, gaining points from the first step by not having someone pounce on you asking “Is this your first visit ?”, “Shall I tell you lots of history ?” and “We have donation boxes”.
And while there is a self-guided route, taking in Logie-Baird’s television and the rise of the British seaside,
and the mods and rockers, nothing is overdone.
And if you want to know what the overhyped Bayeux Tapestry is all about, there’s a blow by blow (literally) video which explains it all. Who knew the Battle started over a duff pint of Harvey’s in the Squirrel ?
I didn’t take any photos of the exhibition by local artists, as it was all for sale, but it was high quality stuff, as good as the permanent exhibition of 20th century art like this Fremlins pub.
Not enough on pubs and beer, but Stafford Paul may appeciate this.
The building itself is a century old house bought by the council to improve its citizens in more enlightened times, and includes the reinstalled 1886 Durbar Hall, a centrepiece of the Colonial & Indian Exhibition.
Why are so many of the UK’s gems so little known ?
Presumably because people who write about the UK spend too much time in pubs, I guess.
