Meads - Where the Downs meets the sea…
Meads Village lies between Eastbourne town centre and Beachy Head. It is prized for its wide tree lined streets and grand Victorian and Edwardian residences. At its centre is ‘The Village’, a group of 19th Century artisan dwellings built around a square of central allotments, each one a miniature cottage garden which are a riot of colour from spring to autumn with roses scrambling over flint walls and rustic arches. Nearby Meads Street with its parade of shops, restaurants, cafes, pubs and Parish Hall is the beating heart of the local community.
The sea is just a few minutes’ walk away at the former fishing hamlet of Holywell, set at the foot of the South Downs. There is a cliff top promenade with slopes and steps down to a lower promenade leading to a shingle beach with a café, toilet facilities, beach huts and chalets. At low tide rock pools are full of marine life and the chalk cliffs of Beachy Head provide a stunning backdrop. This part of Meads Village forms the gateway to the South Downs National Park, making it the perfect place for walkers, cyclists and runners to enjoy some of the most spectacular scenery in the British Isles. And for lovers of the arts, Eastbourne’s theatreland and stunning modern art gallery – part of Meads’ Devonshire Quarter – are a fifteen minute walk away.
Timeline
1600
The original Ship Inn is built. A plaque on the corner of Derwent Road and Meads Street notes the site. Subsequently rebuilt a little further down Meads Street, it is still a favourite with locals and visitors alike.
1800
Meads is recorded as an agricultural hamlet which includes three farms: Place Farm (the farmhouse of which still survives and is now a listed building known as Meads Place in Gaudick Road) Coltstocks Farm which stood on the site of St Andrew’s School, and Sprays Farm which stood on the corner of Meads Street and Matlock Road.
1849
The opening of the railway line from Eastbourne to London.
1859
Henry Currey, architect to the 7th Duke of Devonshire whose family owned much of Eastbourne produces a town plan. While other resorts such as Brighton grew at random, Eastbourne becomes a model of early town planning. Thus, eventually Eastbourne is known as ‘The Empress of Watering Places’ while Brighton is referred to as ‘The Queen of Watering Places’.
1861
The Holywell- Dieppe telegraph cable – one of the first to reach the UK - brought ashore and housed on Holywell beach. News of the assassination of Arch Duke Franz-Ferdinand reached London via the telegraph service and it is entirely possible that this dispatch was routed via Holywell.
1867
Eastbourne College founded.
1869
Harriet Brownlow Byron, Mother Foundress of the Community of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor opens All Saints Convalescent Hospital, the first purpose built seaside convalescent hospital in the UK. Designed by the ‘gentleman architect’ Henry Woodyer in the Gothic Revival style both the main structure and its chapel are now Grade II*Listed buildings.
1870
Eastbourne College moves to its current school buildings designed by Henry Currey in College Road, Lower Meads.
The Church of St John the Evangelist is built, originally set in the middle of open fields. It now stands at the junction with St John’s Road and Staveley Road. There is a fine sculpture of St John on the East Wall.
1871
The population of the town trebles to 11,000 and the Eastbourne Chronicle describes Meads as ‘the unrivalled Belgravia of a salubrious and flourishing health resort.’
1872
Henry Currey’s town plan is extended west of Meads. It visualises wide tree-lined streets with red briquette pavements trimmed with grass verges and grand residences with gardens of ‘commensurate proportions’. Currey designs the boundary walls to echo the predominantly red brick buildings, thus forming a unique relationship between the houses and the streetscape. Many of the roads in Meads are named after towns and villages in Derbyshire, around Chatsworth House, the Duke’s ancestral seat. Examples include Buxton, Edensor, Matlock and Chesterfield. The Duke describes Eastbourne as “A town built by gentlemen, for gentlemen.” He offers plots of land in Meads to members of the aristocracy and wealthy industrialists for the building of second homes away from the polluted cities. He makes one proviso: that to buy the land, any purchaser would have to commit to spending at least £2,500 on building the house – worth £712,500 today. Looking at these magnificent mansions now, it is clear that many new owners probably spent even more. It seems there was a certain amount of ‘one upmanship’ amongst the wealthy newcomers of Meads.
1874
The opening and blessing of All Saints Chapel in the grounds of the convalescent hospital.
The creation of Devonshire Park in Lower Meads, known also as ‘The Duke’s Pleasure Ground’ originally laid out with terraces, walks and a cricket pitch. Later additions included tennis courts which are now home to the annual Aegon International Tennis Tournament.
1876
The opening of the Grand Hotel built by local resident William Earp at a cost of £50,000. Also known as ‘The White Palace’ because of its 400ft white stucco building, it is the only five-star sea front hotel in the whole of the UK.
1877
Meads School (later renamed as St Andrew’s Prep) founded.
1879
All Saints Church is built on open fields. It now stands on the corner of Grange Road and Carlisle Road.
Sources attribute the architect as T E C Streatfield
1880
Meads merges with the village of East Bourne, the nearby hamlets of South Bourne and Sea Houses to form the town of Eastbourne.
1883
The Western Parades designed by George Wallis, the first Mayor of Eastbourne, comprising three seafront walks of different levels are opened by the then Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII). A raised viewpoint on King Edward’s Parade at Holywell known as the Prince’s Seat, or Crow’s Nest marks the spot.
1884
The opening of the Devonshire Park Theatre designed by Henry Currey. It is now a Grade II* Listed building.
De Walden Court is built on Meads Road. An impressive Italianate house, the design of which is thought to be based on Chatsworth House now a Grade II listed building.
1886
Eastbourne’s popularity as a seaside resort increases. Its railway station is rebuilt with four platforms, a vaulted canopy and lantern roof.
1887
Moira House School (founded in Surrey in 1875) moves to Upper Carlisle Road Meads.
1890
Meads becomes the smart end of town. Its residents are the well to do and include professionals, self-made men, retired senior members of the military and former members of the colonial Civil Service. Many domestic servants live in, or occupy cottages clustered around three pubs – The Ship Inn, The Pilot Inn, and The Blacksmiths Arms (demolished before the turn of the century).
1894
‘The Village’, which is now the centrepiece of the Meads Conservation area is conceived. This square of artisans’ villas around central allotments was built by George Ambrose Wallis Chief Planner and Civil Engineer who became the first Mayor of Eastbourne. The square was then known as Wallis’s Cottages. Their original purpose was to house workers from the 7th Duke of Devonshire’s Compton Estate.
1895
The opening of the Hydro Hotel in Mount Road, Meads by the Eastbourne Hydropathic Company on the site of an imposing house formerly known as Marine Mansion.
St Bede’s School opens in Blackwater Road, Meads.
1900
St Bede’s School moves to its present site in Dukes Drive built at a cost of £7,000. In 2012 the school is renamed Bede’s.
1902
Beachy Head lighthouse becomes operational
1903
The inauguration of the oldest municipal omnibus service in the world. Running between Eastbourne Railway Station and Meads, its speed was initially restricted to 6mph, it required an Act of Parliament to increase it to 10mph. The route terminated at The Pilot Inn.
The Devonshire Park Theatre re-opens with a new interior designed by Frank Matcham. It is now a listed building
1904
The former chalk pit known as The Gore is landscaped as a garden and renamed Holywell Retreat.
1905
Holywell Tea Chalet is built around this time. It was enlarged after World War II and is still a favourite with locals and tourists. It is open every day of the year apart from Christmas Day.
1922
Holywell Retreat is re-designed in the Italianate style by unemployed labourers at a cost of £400. The Holywell-Dieppe telegraph cable is removed from the beach and rehoused here in a specially designed building.
The land forms the oldest of the three Meads parks and is now known locally as the Italian Gardens.
It is noted for its summer open-air productions of Shakespeare plays.
1926
St John’s Parish Hall is built in Meads Street on the site of the old village school which had been in use since 1849.
It continues to serve as a busy hub for local community groups.
1927
All Saints Church is severely damaged by fire. Only the tower and the vestry remain intact.
1930
All Saints Church is rededicated after being rebuilt to the designs of A R G Fenning and P D Stonham.
It is now a Grade II listed building.
1933
A piece of downland with an unprotected cliff edge is conveyed to the Eastbourne Corporation by the estate of Mrs Helen Reid Stewart Hornby Lewis “In memory of many happy days for use and enjoyment as a public pleasure ground.” It was landscaped and opened to the public in 1935 and is now known as The Helen Garden, the second of the three parks of Meads. It has a children’s playground, picnic area, putting green and a Pétanque court.
1936
St John’s Bowling Club is founded in the Helen Garden. It is one of the few in the county that has a green with a sea view.
King George V and Queen Mary use beach chalet number 2 at Holywell during the time he was convalescing in Eastbourne
1942
St John’s Church is bombed. Only the tower survives.
1947
A teacher training college opens in Darley Road on the sites of two schools that had been evacuated during the war: Queenwood Ladies College and Aldro School.
Chelsea College of Physical Education moves to Eastbourne taking over the former Hillbrow School in Denton Road.
1957
St John’s Church is rebuilt brick by brick using flints salvaged from the original building.
1959
All Saints Convalescent Hospital ceases its work and is eventually taken over by the NHS.
1961
The Wish Tower and Sun Lounge Cafe is built next to the Western Lawns with funds from Gilbert Foyle (of Foyles bookshops) in memory of the 180 civilians who lost their lives when the town was heavily bombed in WWII.
1963
The opening of the Congress Theatre. Designed by Bryan and Norman Westwood as a theatre and conference venue it is now a Grade II* Listed building.
1966
The completion of South Cliff Tower in Meads.
The college buildings in Darley and Denton Road together with a new building are opened by Her Majesty the Queen forming the Eastbourne Campuses of the University of Brighton.
2004
All Saints Hospital is closed. Plans for its demolition are vigorously opposed by local residents which leads to the formation of the Meads Community Association.
2009
All Saints is redeveloped as luxury flats with land set aside which the developers landscape to form All Saints Park, becoming the third public park in Meads. Its views of the nearby neo-gothic buildings and especially All Saints Chapel give it a peaceful and tranquil atmosphere.
The Towner Art Gallery moves from Eastbourne’s Old Town district to a new purpose-built gallery designed by award-winning architect Rick Mather next to the Congress Theatre in Devonshire Park.
2012
The Wish Tower and Sun Lounge Cafe, having fallen into disrepair, is demolished by Eastbourne Borough Council.
Eastbourne College opens the Birley Centre for contemporary and performing arts in Carlisle Road, Lower Meads.
2015
Eastbourne College celebrates its 150th anniversary by beginning work on its £33million investment programme appropriately named Project 150.
The Friends of Meads Parks and Gardens is formed with three parks under its remit: All Saints Park, The Helen Garden, and the Italian Gardens
2016
The dry moat of the Martello Tower (known as the Wish Tower) near the site of the Wish Tower and Sun Lounge Cafe, having been taken over by the Eastbourne Civil War Memorial Trust, is redesigned and planted as a garden. A stone boulder made of Welsh granite is winched into place and a steel plaque bearing the names of those who lost their lives when the town was heavily bombed in WWII is added and the new space is named the Peace Garden.
2017
Eastbourne College celebrates its 150th anniversary with the opening of the first phase of its £33million investment programme appropriately named Project 150. This includes 32 new classrooms and a new cricket pavilion.
The Congress Theatre closes its doors to become a major part of the town’s £54 million project to create the new Devonshire Quarter, a major cultural, conferencing, and sporting complex.
Work also begins on a new Welcome Building adjacent to the Congress Theatre.
2018
The Peace Garden is formally opened by the former ballerina Beryl Grey
Eastbourne College completes phase two of Project 150 which includes a new sports centre, swimming pool, and dining facilities.
Moira House merges with Roedean as part of the newly created Roedean Group of Schools and becomes Roedean Moira House.
2019
Work on the Devonshire Quarter is completed.
A newly created public plaza provides a clear link to the town centre and the seafront.
The Welcome Building opens housing, conference halls, and hospitality areas. It also provides access to both the Congress and the Devonshire Park Theatres, Towner, and the new tennis facilities.
The Congress Theatre reopens with a concert by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Meads Village Allotments are put up for auction by a property company based in London. A steering group made up of residents, representatives of the Meads Community Association, and Meads Ward Councillors contact the property company. As a result the auction is cancelled and the company states that they would prefer the freehold to be sold to a group representing the local community for £25,000.
This leads to the formation of the Meads Village Allotments Community INterest Company with residents and MCA members being invited to buy a £1 share in the company and also to make a donation to help fund the purchase of the freehold. The sale goes through in December.
2020
The Civilian War Memorial Trust is dissolved and the Peace Garden is handed over to Eastbourne Borough Council, becoming a public park and falling within the remit of the Friends of Meads Parks and Gardens.
2021
Roedean Moira House closes its doors. The land and buildings are sold for £8million to a property developer keen to work with the local community. A specially mounted exhibition is open to the public showing their plans to retain the three original buildings: Boston House, Moira House and Dunn House and demolish the more recent structures to create a mix of apartments and family houses.
An interpretation board telling the story of the Meads Village allotments from its inception to its purchase by the community is installed at the junction of Matlock Road and The Village and unveiled by Caroline Ansell, Member of Parliament for Eastbourne and Willingdon.