Greetings from Eastbourne

With a permanent population of just under 100,000, the English seaside holiday resort of Eastbourne attracts over four million visitors a year. Officially the sunniest place in Great Britain, Eastbourne’s tourist industry generates an annual £365 million (€463 million), supporting somewhere in the region of 7,000 related jobs. Evidence suggests that people inhabited the area during the Stone Age, although the town is relatively speaking quite a modern one, having been little more than a collection of sheep farms until the opening of the railway linking Eastbourne with the capital on May 14, 1849 turned the town into one of the most popular seaside resorts of the day. Voted Number One UK destination by Co-op Travel in 2007, Eastbourne is often forced to play second fiddle to its altogether more hip cousin Brighton, 19 miles (30km) to the west, and has a somewhat cruel reputation as being a magnet for both short- and long-term anoraks, pensioners and other unsophisticated souls. True up to a point, on the other hand it could also be argued that Eastbourne has attracted a more interesting and cultured variety of characters over the decades. The town currently features 10 blue plaques celebrating among others Charles Dickens (who stayed several times during the 1830s with his friend the artist Augustus Egg), Lewis Carroll (who spent a grand total of 19 summer holidays in the town), the portrait and fashion photographer Cecil Beaton, the socialist author George Orwell and two disparate stars of comedy, namely Charlie Chester and Tommy Cooper. For most holidaymakers, Eastbourne is the part of the town where the land meets the sea, the fabulous promenade of pebbled blue flag beaches, fish and chip shops, deck chairs, beach huts, 19th-century pier complete with Victorian camera obscura, bandstand, hotels and, every August, the world’s largest seafront air show, all of it stretching some two miles (3.2km) from Dukes Parade in the west to Royal Parade in the east.

To be continued…