Walking The Kent Coast: Walk 36. Hastings to Cooden

Today’s start point is the RNLI lifeboat station on Hastings seafront. This sits in between the Stade, with it’s working fishing fleet, and the ‘touristy’ area of kid’s funfair rides, penny arcades, crazy golf, and ice creams etc.

Fortunately the sun is just starting to appear as I set off past the attractions, most of which are closed at this time of year.

Just across the road is a tall cliff with the remains of Hastings Castle on the top…

Meanwhile on the beach we have some ‘municipal art’…

A few minutes further on is Hastings Pier. Originally built in the Victorian period, it seems to have had something of a chequered history with various episodes of storm damage, fires, changes of ownership and so on. It was largely rebuilt a few years ago and reopened to the public in 2016.

Past the pier the prom continues into the distance…

At some point I pass from Hastings into St Leonards, although it’s hard to tell where as they are thoroughly merged together! I only know I’m there because I pass this sign…

Apparently St Leonards also used to have a pier but the only visible evidence I see is this info board…

About an hour into the walk I come to a place called Bulverhythe. There doesn’t seem to be much to it. The path passes between some beach huts…

…then runs alongside this railway depot…

The railway actually hugs the beach for quite a way here…

It veers off inland when I reach Galley Hill on the approach to Bexhill.

Reaching Bexhill I walk along the East Parade past some neat white beach huts and blocks of flats across the road that look well kept and maintained…

A little further on is a sculpture of an old car and a sign to the Motor Racing Heritage Centre…

Apparently Bexhill-on-Sea bills itself as ‘The Birthplace of British Motor Racing’!

In May 1902 the 8th Earl De La Warr organised the first ever motor race in Britain along the sea front here. He was able to do this as it was his own private land and so not subject to the blanket 12mph speed limit that applied across the rest of the country.

Talking of the Da La Warr family, a few minutes later I discover the De La Warr Pavilion. This grand-looking building was opened in 1935 and today is a centre for the arts and culture.

Continuing along the well-maintained prom there are more white beach huts and more flats. There are no signs of the usual beach front businesses such as penny arcades and the like - Bexhill is obviously far too gentile for all that nonsense! It does have a colourful old clock-tower though…

A few minutes later the road heads inland and the prom ends. I am now walking along a concrete sea wall that skirts the back gardens of some pricey-looking houses that have great sea views!