{"product_id":"down-from-london-hastings","title":"Down From London: Local Secrets, Honest Stories \u0026 the Real Hastings","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe boats are on the beach because the harbour was never finished, and that tells you most of what you need to know.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThirty odd boats on the register, maybe ten that still go out, none longer than ten metres, pushed down the shingle by tractors before it is light and hauled back up when they are done. It is what's left of the biggest beach launched fleet in Europe and it works off a strip of stones in front of tall black net shops that have been on that strip since the 1830s. I walked past it for the best part of a year thinking it was a heritage display. It is a workplace. Pat, seventy four, born on All Saints Street, put me right on that and on most other things.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI moved from Walthamstow in June 2022 and bought a flat between Norman Road and Warrior Square at what turned out to be the top of the market. I am a DFL. I know what that means here and I know what it did to prices. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. It is what a town that had every reason to ignore me told me anyway, once I stopped turning up only in August.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;margin:26px 0;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0942\/8218\/7134\/files\/down-from-london-hastings-spread.jpg\" alt=\"Chapter Two: Turn Up In February, a real spread from Down From London\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px;\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWhat's in it\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReading the Stade.\u003c\/strong\u003e What the tractors are doing at half six, which family is which by the boat, why the net shops are tall (not for drying nets), the under ten metre quota problem in plain words, the Fishermen's Museum, and how to buy fish off the huts without embarrassing yourself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTwo ends, one town, sort of.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Old Town and St Leonards, why each thinks the other has it wrong, Burton's 1826 plan, Marine Court, Warrior Square, Norman Road and Kings Road, and the honest version of what people like me did to the price of a flat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBottle Alley and the front.\u003c\/strong\u003e The 480 metre walk under the prom, the glass in the walls, the shelters and who sits in them, Pelham Crescent and the work above St Mary in the Castle, and the pier told straight: the lottery money, the sale, the four million asking price, the court order, the empty units.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBonfire and Hastings Week.\u003c\/strong\u003e The 17 October procession, lit from the East Hill beacon and ending on the beach at Pelham Place, where to stand, what the programme is for, the week around the 14 October anniversary, and why you do not ask a bonfire society what time the fireworks are.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe chippy question.\u003c\/strong\u003e Maggie's, Blue Dolphin, the Mermaid, the Cod Father, Kingfisher, Blue Fish, Hollington, the Lighthouse. Who says what, why Rock-a-Nore thinks it has won, and the people who say buy it off the hut and go home.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDeprivation, honestly.\u003c\/strong\u003e Third most deprived council area in England on the 2025 figures, eighteen neighbourhoods in the worst tenth, what that looks like on the ground, street by street, and why it is not a St Leonards seafront problem, the draft Local Plan's 700 homes a year, and what a newcomer owes a town like this.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Old Town year.\u003c\/strong\u003e Jack in the Green, Carnival Week, Pirate Day, the Seafood and Wine weekend and this year's row over fenced off benches, Coastal Currents in September, the Duke of Wellington coming back, and which pubs are for locals on a Tuesday.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGetting here and getting about.\u003c\/strong\u003e Warrior Square versus Hastings station for London, the East Hill lift (steepest in the country), the castle works, and where to leave a car on Bonfire night (nowhere near it).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFebruary.\u003c\/strong\u003e What the town is like when it is only yours: the fleet in bad weather, the empty prom, the light off the sea at four o'clock, and why Pat says this is the only month that counts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eHow it works\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eInstant download, opens on a phone, tablet or laptop, roughly sixty pages. Hastings does not stand still, the pier alone changes hands every time you look, so when a pub reopens, a chippy shuts or a bonfire date moves I rewrite the relevant bit and send the new version to everyone who has already bought it. Free, for life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;margin:28px 0 18px;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/rootsand-routes.com\/cart\/58091673125246:1\" style=\"display:inline-block;background:#1f1e1c;color:#fff9ec;padding:16px 34px;border-radius:6px;font-size:18px;font-weight:700;text-decoration:none;letter-spacing:0.3px;\"\u003eGet Down From London now\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;margin:26px 0;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0942\/8218\/7134\/files\/down-from-london-hastings-updates.jpg\" alt=\"Buy it once, keep it forever, free updates for life\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px;\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWho this is for\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeople who left Hastings and still check the fishing beach webcam. People who grew up in the Old Town and are watching it change. Anyone thinking of moving down who wants the true version before the estate agent's one. And anyone who has stood on the Stade at half six wondering what on earth the tractors are for.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePat says turn up in February. Then we'll talk.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;margin:28px 0 8px;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/rootsand-routes.com\/cart\/58091673125246:1\" style=\"display:inline-block;background:#c25a2a;color:#fff9ec;padding:16px 34px;border-radius:6px;font-size:18px;font-weight:700;text-decoration:none;letter-spacing:0.3px;\"\u003eDownload it now, free updates for life\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;font-size:14px;color:#555;\"\u003eInstant download. Any device. Written under the pen name Natalie Monroe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Roots \u0026 Routes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58091673125246,"sku":"HAS-DFL-01","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0942\/8218\/7134\/files\/down-from-london-hastings-cover.jpg?v=1790287503","url":"https:\/\/rootsand-routes.com\/products\/down-from-london-hastings","provider":"Roots \u0026 Routes","version":"1.0","type":"link"}