Sad
Another covid casualty: St Mary in the Castle, Hastings. This weird old building is a decommissioned church that has been used as a music venue since 1997.
Uncle B and I have been to a few events there over the years and we’ve always remarked what a nightmare it must be to keep up. It’s Grade II* listed (any work done there is hellishly expensive) and it’s built right into the cliff face. In fact, I think parts of the back wall are literally the stone cliff.
Can you say damp?
The acoustics weren’t great but the building was a treat. I suppose it will deteriorate pretty fast if it’s left empty for any length of time.
And, yes, this was the exciting post I forgot to hit SEND on last night.
Posted: November 2nd, 2022 under personal.
Comments: 4
Comments
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: November 2, 2022, 8:27 pm
Let’s see if I’ve got this right. The historical preservation authoritahs declared goal is to preserve the ex-church, and they require any maintenance to adhere to their rules, but adhering to their rules is very expensive, so no business is likely to make a go of it when non-historical venues are much cheaper, and so the historic ex-church doesn’t get preserved (and in fact deteriorates rapidly because of its age) which is the ostensible raison d’être of the historical preservation authoritahs in the first place.
And that’s a shame. It looks like a very interesting place.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: November 2, 2022, 8:44 pm
Our house is Grade II listed (note absence of star; it’s one step down from St Mary in the Castle). All our repairs are super expensive, too – though we don’t sweat the petty stuff. I’ve always thought the government ought to cut us some slack (tax breaks, maybe?) for helping preserve a bit o’ historic England, but it doesn’t work that way.
I know of several important historic properties that are continually rescued from oblivion at the last moment by concerned citizens.
Comment from Doug
Time: November 2, 2022, 11:23 pm
This building looks like the kind of thing a proper Victorian gentleman architect with suppressed tourette’s syndrome would release his pent up energy on. It looks like someone stacked a Spanish mission on an early industrial factory, then slapped some columns up front to insult them both.
Comment from Mitch
Time: November 4, 2022, 4:58 am
All in all it’s just another crumbling brick in the crumbling wall.
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