How Hastings seafront looked before the pier
The population of Hastings was rising steadily from 3,318 in 1801 it had reached 25,929 in 1861 and, by the time the pier opened it was heading towards 38,000. The town of St. Leonards hadn’t existed before 1828 and was still independent and separate from Hastings and was run by a board of Commissioners with its boundary marked with an archway west of the bottom of London Road although the eastern boundary of the postal area of St Leonards started at White Rock.
All illustrations throughout this series are from Ion Castro’s own collection and he can make available copies of many of the historic images used in this series. There’s more local history on Ion’s website, www.historichastings.co.uk