Eastbourne

[gothicform]

existing tall buildings in eastbourne -

southcliff tower, 58m. roger moore used to have the penthouse during his james bond days! not sure about the architect, i believe it's seifert.









The Church of St Saviour and St Peter, 52m




south view, 37m (ish)

[gothicform]

an overhaul of the arndale centre is planned - http://www.skyscrapernews.com/news.php?ref=3074

[Pompey77]

Never realised there was an Arndale centre in Eastboure always think of them as a northern thing.

Love the subtle curve on that Southcliff tower, do you know of any decent books on Richard Seifert? I've been after one for ages and not really seen anything. Seems odd given how he seems to have designed every remotely decent tall building from the 1970's.

[Leeds No.1]

I suppose that's an improvement, but it depends on what changes are planned internally that will really make the difference. I haven't been for a while, but last time I went it was certainly stuck in the 90s.

It should also attempt to up its retail offering and attract shoppers who go to Brighton. It can certainly support a better retail mix than what it has currently.

[gothicform]

Originally Posted by Leeds No.1

I suppose that's an improvement, but it depends on what changes are planned internally that will really make the difference. I haven't been for a while, but last time I went it was certainly stuck in the 90s.

It should also attempt to up its retail offering and attract shoppers who go to Brighton. It can certainly support a better retail mix than what it has currently.

eastbourne is the largest place in england to not have a burger king!

[Leeds No.1]

Really? Burger King need to sort that out!

I say that in shock. Leeds must have been, until recently, the largest city without a KFC and Harrogate the largest town without a Tesco (and the only postcode area without one).

Eastbourne has always been a bit of a funny place for shopping. The retail in the centre doesn't seem to match the population very well at all, and I don't expect it is attracting people in from particularly far afield. It must be losing a lot of potential trade to Brighton and to some extent, Tunbridge Wells.

There's no focus for retail. It's far too spread out for a town of Eastbourne's size, with no particularly nicely pedestrianised areas. For what is a relatively pleasant and architecturally pleasing town, it has such a poorly kept town centre.

[gothicform]

eastbourne used to have a burger king, but it closed due to the recession.

some of the shopping streets have to be seen to be believed. the longest shopping street in the town has a vacancy rate of over 30%! another useless fact is that there are the 4th highest number of bankruptcies here.

[Leeds No.1]

I assume you're referring to Terminus Road.

It's no surprise. There's no focus for the town centre, no decent sized units for modern retailers, no high quality pedestrian areas... Crazy for a town which has a relatively wealthy hinterland.

[ill tonkso]

Eastbourne suffers from being too close to Brighton. Between 33 and 42 minutes on the train, 3-4 of them an hour.

[Leeds No.1]

I don't believe that is an acceptable reason for Eastbourne's underperformance. Harrogate is only 30 minutes from York and Leeds, trains every 30 mins (15 at peak times), buses every 15. It's still a busy retail centre.

There's no reason why Eastbourne shouldn't be thriving. If the shops and services that people want are available in their local centre, they'll usually go there unless its a day out.

[gothicform]

Originally Posted by ill tonkso

Eastbourne suffers from being too close to Brighton. Between 33 and 42 minutes on the train, 3-4 of them an hour.

i don't think this is true at all either. for example there is ONE wine merchant in eastbourne open to the public, there is a single camera shop in the whole of town - jessops - which is a truly awful place with no selection at all (they couldn't even give me a 52mm uv filter yesterday). the nearest specialist camera shop is in polegate. in both of these cases there are multiple independent retailers in hailsham which is only a few miles away. hailsham also has a proper large fish shop in it, rather than a small place crammed into a converted lower floor of a house. speaking of hailsham, that has a burger king!

you can talk about proximity to brighton all you want but remember this is a place that even lacks a burger king and there are over 700 of those in the UK. i know many people who actually go to hailsham for shopping because it has a better range of shops than eastbourne - if you have money and live here that's where you go shopping.

[Rational Plan]

Eastbourne suffers from poor road and rail links to London.