St Leonards on Sea in East Sussex feels like a town on the up. It’s gritty in places but it’s also colourful, quirky and packed with interesting architecture, creative outlets and cool places to eat.
In 2022, it was being described as the latest hip place to live and there is certainly a trendy new community living here. If you’re coming by car, there is free parking at the west end of the Marina at West Marina Gardens. It’s just a 1 km walk from there to Undercliff. If you’re travelling by train, there is a station at the top of Kings Road in the centre of town, and buses travel frequently along the seafront.
Architecture, sculpture and blue plaques
Start by exploring the wider area of St Leonards before you dig into the main town. If you’ve parked at West Marina Gardens, walk along the seafront where you’ll see Regency and Victorian houses, the latest sculpture by Leigh Dyer called Marina (there is more of his work in Hastings) and the first blue plaque of your visit, marking where author and historian Thomas Carlyle once lived.
Keep walking until you see the large, modern church set back from the seafront. This was built on the site of a previous church bombed in the war, and although it was only built in 1961 and is Grade II listed, it is now abandoned due to structural problems.
From here, you can walk up the winding cliff path or carry along the seafront until you come to the impressive Royal Victoria Hotel and Marine Court.
The Royal Victoria, with its glinting gold emblem, was built in 1828 by James Burton. He was mainly responsible for creating this new seaside resort and references to him pop up all over the town. The hotel received the Royal Charter from Queen Victoria, who visited on numerous occasions, and later again from King George V. A stone’s throw away, Marine Court couldn’t be more different and was built in the 1930s in Art Deco style to look like an ocean liner. On the seafront you’ll also see a small plaque where the pier used to be. It was destroyed by fire in 1944 but there is an information board that tells its story.
Head inland from here towards Maze Hill. First you’ll see the Masonic Hall built in 1829. It was badly damaged in WWII but you wouldn’t know and its four columns make an impressive statement.
Behind this, you’ll see the South Lodge entrance to St Leonards Gardens but if you bear left you’ll pass the Bath House which is a renovated Turkish Bath built in 1868 and now let as an Airbnb. If you can, get a look inside because rumour has it, it’s slightly insane.
Keep on up the hill until Quarry Hill meets Maze Hill. The architecture and housing is fabulous, stacked as it is on steep cliffs.
Eventually you come to a house and archway over the road and another blue plaque (this time to Sir Henry Rider Haggard, author of King Solomon’s Mines). Through the arch and there is blue plaque number three at Baston Lodge, the one time home of Alan Turing.
St Michael’s Hospice adds a Mediterranean feel on the opposite side of the road with its white walls and sea blue windows and just up the hill is the impressive Victorian Gothic style steeple of St John’s church.
Walking back down the hill, it’s tempting to stroll through the gardens (and you should, because they are a real pocket of tranquillity) but if you walk around the east side, you’ll pass the Gothic-style Clock House that overlooks the park, which went on sale in 2022 with a cheeky price tag of £2.5 million. Keep on walking down the hill and the houses have some interesting double doorways!
From here, wiggle your way through the backstreets and you’ll pass rows of brightly coloured houses until you come to Norman Road. But before you start browsing the shops here, head east of the town centre, stopping at Warrior Square (developed in the 1850s and 1870s and complete with rose garden and grand Victorian housing). You’ll pass the Greek Orthodox church of St Mary Magdalen built in 1852 before finally coming to a large wall. Here you can just grab glimpses of the huge building and estate that was once the Convent of the Holy Child Jesus, a training college completed in 1848. It’s now a language school but looks sadly neglected.
Along the seafront
You’re close to the Hastings border here (Hastings Museum and Art Gallery is just a short walk). If you drop back down onto the seafront, you can walk from Hastings Pier via Bottle Alley back to St Leonards on Sea. The alley was built in the 1930s as part of a two level promenade. As the name suggests, the walls of Bottle Alley are decorated with broken glass from bottles. There is also something called Wavelength along the alley. This originally ran from 2017 until 2020, and involved painting all 113 columns with two colour gradients, one running from East to West and the other West to East. The work has now been reinstated with the help of volunteer painters.
Goats and American detectives
Along the seafront, there are also a number of cool cafés like Starsky and Hatch and Goat Ledge. Cosmopolitan music wafts out of the kiosks and on a sunny day, brightly coloured shacks and seating give the area a tropical feel.
It always seems to be buzzing here and look for My Heart Belongs to Hastings which is a creative installation which encourages people to decorate their own padlocks and lock them onto the artwork.
A little further on, and there’s seating built into the promenade wall and decorated with a series of brightly coloured murals by local artists and community groups.
Now there is just time to grab a coffee on the beach before you head back into the main part of St Leonards on Sea for some shopping and serious eating!
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