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Central St Leonards is a part of the town where you can see visible evidence of regeneration, positive change and continual progress. Already home to a spectacular stretch of the Hastings seafront, thriving restaurants, one of the town's finest hotels and many unique architectural landmarks, the area has incredible potential.
Our work in St Leonards is all about building on these strengths, energising its vibrant community, reconnecting the area with the rest of the town and celebrating its unique heritage and history.
These regularly updated pages are your guide to everything that's going on in St Leonards!
This area will demonstrate how we're not only making big changes throughout St Leonards but also a series of smaller alterations that, when taken together, will greatly improve the appearance and ambience of the area together with people's perceptions of it. These alterations all add up to a better quality of life for residents and an improved and more attractive image for potential visitors.
Our success in trying to regenerate the area is reflected in recent positive publicity for the area in both the national (The Times 1 August 2008) and local press (Hasting Observer 14 August 2008). Further evidence is the number of new businesses to the area. Central St Leonards is positively changing and we have been enabling this process over the past 5 years.
Our approach to the physical regeneration programme includes improvements to derelict and poor frontage properties to bring them back into use, the restoration of key architecturally important buildings and improving public spaces such as parks, roads, pedestrian routes and the seafront. This has involved large amounts of private and public investment over past few years and the positive results are slowly emerging.
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We're working with East Sussex County Council and South East England Development Agency to improve the pedestrian environment along the 'Kings Road Corridor' which runs from St Leonards Warrior Square station to the seafront along Kings Road and London Road.
Improvements to Kings Road are one of the most important aspects to the overall regeneration programme for the area. Kings Road is an important retail street and these improvements will attract more investment in to the area. The aim is to reduce the number of empty shops on this road and improve the quality of the available shops. The improvements will also signal a positive step-change in the perception of this part of the town and are intended to create a busy thoroughfare from Warrior Square Station to the sea-front. The change will be achieved by the use of high quality materials to improve the open spaces, the creation of attractive gateway points and squares, such as at Pevensey Road, and by the installation of public art at various locations.
Artist impression of the Kings Road Corridor
Some work to the Corridor has already begun including improvements to the lighting and a new planting scheme that will increase in early 2009.
Before: A lack of distinction between the pavement and the road presented a drab, uninviting scene with little definition or character and a monotony of concrete.
After: Greatly improved paving that widens the scope of the entrance and the grey-bricked effect at the road junction helps improve safety. The newly planted tree housed in an attractive cage interrupts the monotony of concrete and complements the newly installed Victorian bollards.
Before: A typically drab urban scene where the pavement, road design and street lamps do nothing to complement the unique Victorian architecture.
After: A series of carefully considered features draw the eye away from the less attractive elements of the street scene. Newly planted trees housed in attractive, Victorian-style cages disrupt the grey monotony of the road and the pavement. The newly installed Victorian style street lamp accentuates the street's unique heritage and the grey-bricked effect at the road junction helps improve safety.
Before: One of the things we're trying to do in St Leonards is to make a clearer link between the streets and the seaside as many people have said they feel like they're cut off from the sea - even though it's only a few minutes walk away. This image shows how the combination of cluttered signage, overly complex traffic systems and close-knit railings created a sense of claustrophobia and obstructed the natural flow of London Road as it emerged from the centre of St Leonards and out onto the seafront. It also made this 'gateway' into St Leonards appear heavily fortified and uninviting.
After: Removing the railings, much of the signage and simplifiying the traffic system created a much more expansive effect so London Road now flows freely down to the seafront, feels far less static and easily leads onto the panorama of the beach. This 'gateway' into St Leonards is now open and inviting.
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Following an award in March 2006 of almost £1million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), we have now restored St Leonards Gardens and South Lodge to their former glory. In the gardens we've renovated walls, paths and railings, and replanted flower and shrub borders. We've also installed additional seating so residents can enjoy the views of South Lodge and the gardens.
Visit our St Leonards Gardens area to find out more about the gardens or learn more about the restoration. Please contact us if you are interested in becoming a member of the Friends of St Leonards Gardens, or have an idea for a future event.
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For residents and businesses one of the major issues in St Leonards is parking. It's vital that we find the right solution as properly planned parking can help get things moving in St Leonards, stimulating shopping and visitor activity. We have recently carried out two major consultations on the issue of parking in St Leonards and the results will be used to provide a strong foundation for making the right decisions about the future.
This study explored how parking management, supply and demand will impact on the St Leonards economy both now and into the future. You can read an executive summary of the study or the report that was sent to Cabinet.
We're now working to introduce the recommended interim measures to make more parking spaces available for shoppers visiting the retail areas of Central St Leonards. These measures should be put in place next year (2009) and include:
A project group has been set up to deliver the initiative as quickly as possible and we'll keep this area updated with the latest developments.
The Warrior Square Echelon Parking Study looked at how more parking could be provided around Warrior Square Gardens. Following broad support from residents and retailers, we are now working on the detailed designs and plan to start work in December 2008.
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In 2003 Central St Leonards was declared a Housing Renewal Area which means that we recognised the need to improve the quality and safety of much of the housing in the area. There is a list of properties included in the renewal area and a map outlining the area.
As part of our drive to improve St Leonards housing, we have a strict enforcement regime for houses in multiple occupation and dilapidated properties.
W're currently investing approximately £1m a year into this programme and since September 2004 more than 146 homes have been brought up to satisfactory standards.
We're now focussing on the worst housing areas in Central St Leonards and more and more roads will be covered as the project continues to 2011.
Residents and landlords can apply for a number of Housing Grants as part of our overall plan to improve the quality of housing in the St Leonards area.
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Our sister site carries information on Regency designed Burtons St Leonards and the art installation - Stream. We've just agreed a discounted parking fee at the Marina Car Park for Royal Victoria Hotel visitors during the day and night encouraging more visitors to stay in the area. There is an Illuminated Architecture tour that takes in key St Leonards locations and we work closely with the Marina based Hastings Arts Forum and the Baird Film and Television Initiative.
Now in its third year St Leonards Festival has become the centrepiece of the year for the community and a mainstay in the events calendar.
Previous years have seen major acts like Aswad take to the main stage and the festival is fast gaining a reputation as one of the most exhilarating and innovative seaside community events in the South East. Thousands of residents and visitors enjoy the festival market in Kings Road, the countless activities available on the seafront and the many community stands in Warrior Square Gardens.
The festival is all about the wonderfully diverse and talented community of St Leonards. We want to bring people onto the streets to meet their neighbours and celebrate everything that's unique about this remarkable corner of the town.
Acclaimed artist Steve Geliot has been appointed Lead Artist for the Kings Road Corridor renaissance programme.
The Public Art programme will aid 'urban regeneration and has the unique ability to bring together social, economic and physical aspects of urban improvement' (Hastings Public Art Strategy 2005).
Steve's plans include artist designed street furniture, new artist designed shop signs on Kings Road and London Road, and artistic input into the redesigned Warrior Square Station including a proposed landmark artwork.
Ropetackle, Shoreham
Steve has worked on other projects as Lead Artist including the Ropetackle development in Shoreham and the Saltash Project in Cornwall.
Improvements to the pedestrian steps leading from Kings Road to London Road have been celebrated by a new arts installation by St Leonards artist Annabel Tilley whose artwork celebrates the richness and diversity of the Kings Road architecture. Annabel is one of the Hastings based Claremont group of artists.
Glass Wall by artists Caroline Le Breton and John Cole
Other public art landmarks in Central St Leonards include the striking coloured facade of the Marine Pavilion designed by Caroline Le Breton and Jon Cole.
With our partners Seaspace, we have transformed this much-loved 1930s Marina Pavilion into a quality, year-round seafront entertainment and conference venue.
The renovation works involved upgrading the existing building and creating a brasserie style restaurant in a new road level single-storey building which is screened with coloured glass panels. All parts of the venue have stunning views across the sea toward Beachy Head.
Hospitality group Lightening Leisure Ltd has taken over the management of the venue as 'Azur at the Marina Pavilion'.
Lightening Leisure is a new company set up to run Marina Pavilion by entrepreneurial duo David Thorpe-Tracey and Allison McQueen-Luzar. David Thorpe-Tracey was a founding director of West Ham United Hospitality Ltd (the hospitality arm of the football club) and Allison McQueen-Luzar is one of the UKs top complementary medicine consultants.
Lightening Leisure will run Azur as a landmark restaurant, entertainment, wedding and conference venue, beach-front bistro café and state-of-the-art complementary health and beauty suite clinic.
If you have any queries, please call Lightening Leisure on 0845 812 1066.
Get a real sense of the character and charm of St Leonards with this rooftop panorama, taken from a balcony in Marine Court!
Click on the image to open a large version in a new browser Window with a horizontal scroll bar - (.jpg 90KB)
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The Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI 2001 - 2004) has seen £2,000,000 of HLF and HBC investment in improving and restoring many key buildings in Central St Leonards and the Seafront area. We estimate that the total level of primary benefit within the local economy attributable to this programme (including property owners' contributions) is likely to be in the order of £3.5- £4 million.
Building and properties restored during the above Programme include:
Exterior and interior of Renaissance House
A second Heritage restoration programme was launched in the area in 2007 (THI 2: 2007 - 2009). It has the following objectives on a current £2.3m programme (private and public):
The current programme focuses on the following buildings and areas:
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New businesses, cafés and restaurants are establishing themselves in Central St Leonards and thriving. Business that have established themselves over the past two years include:
The strength of the retail sector in Central St Leonards is that almost all are independent and we still retain two independent butchers (Kings Butchers and Orton Butchers), two family run bakers (Wilsons Bakers and Oak Bakery), two green grocers a large independent electrical goods retailer (Adams and Jarret) and a large stationary supplier (Kings Stationers).
We're currently compiling a retail directory which will appear on both this website and also our sister site. Over 20,000 people visit this site every month so businesses will benefit from unprecedented levels of exposure.
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We're currently creating an online guide to all the restaurants and bars in St Leonards on our sister site which will be supported by a printed brochure that should help lift the profile of the area as one of the best places to eat out in Sussex.
The Events listings on this website and on our sister site are used by over 5,000 residents and visitors a month. These listings carry information on events in St Leonards including the Festival and the reopening of St Leonards Gardens.
Members of the public are already providing listings information via the submit an event form so if there's something you'd like to promote please use it!
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There are various ways in which the community can help shape the future of St Leonards. When there's a specific issue (e.g parking) we carry out a formal Consultation which gives people the chance to express their opinions on our proposals and suggest alternatives. On this website, you can find out about upcoming consultations or read the results of previous consultations.
You can join the Gensing and Central St Leonards Community Forum which is a formal group that lobbies the council, the police, the health authority and other public services to improve life in the area for all residents.
You can also sign up to our e-newsletter which will keep you informed of all the latest developments.
Staffed by local volunteers, the centre is there for everyone living and working in St Leonards. You can call in and find out more about the Gensing and Central St Leonards Community Forum, collect a free personal attack alarm or smoke alarm, report problems with rubbish, neighbours or any other issue of concern. We also want to hear about your suggestions on how we can improve the area!
Address:
Community Information Centre
16 Silchester Road
St Leonards on Sea
East Sussex
TN38 0JB
Open: 9.30am to 1.00pm - Monday to Friday
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Please contact us for further advice or information on any matter relating to Central St Leonards Regeneration.
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This page last updated: 15/09/2008