A seaside town that's worth its salt

By Phil Mellows

For a couple of years in the Sixties, Hastings was the favoured spot for the family holiday, last week in July, first week in August each time. Exactly 900 years after a more famous historical event there, I remember interrupting my game of table-tennis to watch the 1966 World Cup in the family room of a pub where they’d rigged up a small black-and-white telly for the occasion.

Also, I remember Hastings for the hottest weather I’d so far experienced. The sea seemed to freeze in the heat, the sun glinting like ice on the torpid waves. I got heatstroke and had to be put to bed. In contrast, taking the train along the coast for Hastings Tap Takeover last week, I looked out at low grey skies that merged into an even greyer sea. But seaside towns retain a kind of charm in miserable weather. And you feel less guilty about spending all day in the pub.

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The weekend promised 17 pubs and bars, each paired with a brewer showcasing a selection of beers. Our little group focused on the centre of Hastings – the event extended to neighbouring St Leonards, which could wait for another day.

I had bracketed the town with similar seaside resorts that have in recent years attracted younger people, unable to afford a house in London, to move there, bringing a certain metropolitan lifestyle along with them in the pantechnicon, including a taste for craft beer. What we found went beyond my expectations. Hastings turned out to be wonderful destination for great pubs serving beers both traditional and modern in a laid-back kind of style, making you feel at home in your temporary local straight away.

There was an obvious place to start. Tumble out of the station and you’re in The Seadog, a corner pub painted in layers of ice-cream white and aquamarine with the words ‘Welcome to Hastings’ boldly flying from its top deck. It was rescued from a fate of becoming flats and brought back to life only in 2022, yet it feels like it’s been there forever. The Seadog’s adopted brewery was Portsmouth’s MakeMake, super trendy at the moment with a particular line in milkshake ales, if you’re into that kind of thing.

After that, I thought it might be nice to hit the seafront to catch some sun, and despite the absence of that we did it anyway. Courtyard is half-submerged beneath the promenade (and thankfully out of the wind and rain) in a building near the pier which, in Victorian times, housed baths. Brewing Brothers, local hero of Hastings’ blossoming beer scene, shares the space with a handful of cafes and restaurants, its 26-tap bar making room for a fine selection from Manchester’s Track.

Buttoned up against the flailing skits of Storm Amy, we next headed east along the prom to a much more traditional place. The Albion is a handsome seafront building that dates from 1730, with panelled walls, a blazing fire and pies – the house speciality. Two breweries, both based at Tenterden in Kent, were featured here, on handpump as well as tap: Twisted Wheel and McCanns. But this stop was mostly about the amazing pies.

Restored and nourished, we went around the corner and into the Old Town for the Jolly Fisherman. As the name suggests, going back to the 1830s it was originally dedicated to making fishermen jolly. After the fishermen dried up it closed. That was in 1959, and it didn’t open as a pub again until 2016. Yet, you wouldn’t know what storms it had survived, relaxing in this timeless tranquil space.

Norfolk’s Duration Brewing had taken over the bar here, perhaps because it has a beer called Fishermen, but I went for a palate-cleansing grisette, of course, before continuing to the Jenny Lind Inn. Opened in 1851 and named after the Swedish opera singer, who no doubt used to lubricate her larynx here, the pub is best known for its live music, which had just started when we arrived. It has eight cask ale lines which, on this occasion, were dominated by ales all the way from Harrogate Brewing.

Then came the difficult bit. We could, and probably should, have hopped on the funicular railway to take us up the steep hill. Instead, we climbed straight over the top where beers at the Imperial, hosting Windsor’s Two Flints as the special guest, seemed especially well-deserved. This has been home base for Brewing Brothers since 2016, and it has its own microbrewery on site as well as a proper wood-fired pizza oven. The vibe is grungy, in a good way.

Next stop was the Prince Albert, a pub that reopened only at the beginning of 2023 under new owners down from London who have turned it into a cool local and introduced good beer on cask and keg, featuring Newcastle’s Donzoko for the weekend.

And finally to Eel & Bear, a co-founder and organiser of Hastings Tap Takeover. Night had fallen by now and the warm, welcoming yellowish glow from the windows of the town’s “only craft beer bottle shop and taproom” drew us into the busiest venue on our tour. Beers from Time & Tide, of Deal, Kent, were on the taps.

But apart from the beer what really mattered about all these pubs and bars were the easy-going people behind the bars who made this return to Hastings so memorable. And the great thing is, they’ll be there for you whether it’s Tap Takeover or not.

Kate’s travel notes

Hastings has plenty to entertain the traditionalists – pinball and penny falls in the arcade, crazy golf with a view of the beach, and a miniature railway that choo-choos its way along the seafront. But it is also the location of one of a series of impressive contemporary art galleries along the south-east coast.

The Hasting Contemporary opened in 2012 in a black box above the sands, an award-winning homage to the nearby net huts of the town’s fishing fleet. Despite some initial resistance, it has become a landmark in the town.

Inside, the work of artists from LS Lowry to Maggi Hambling has been showcased, as well as recurring exhibitions by Artist Patron and local resident Sir Quentin Blake (you can buy original, limited-edition prints by him here, too). Just opened, ‘Things Fall Apart, The Centre Cannot Hold’, artist-activist Isabel Rock’s colourful if menacing vision of our world after climate collapse. Some food for thought with your candy floss.