Hastings history: ​When Hastings was hit by two big scandals

He writes: This year is the 125th anniversary of some notable events in the history of Hastings and St Leonards, including two serious scandals that left a permanent mark on the town.

In early 1899 the shareholders of the Hastings Gas Company decided they wanted to increase their profits by moving their gasworks from Queens Road to a site outside of Hastings, thereby not having to pay £4,000 in coal dues to Hastings Council. The shareholders included many councillors and council employees who would make money for themselves, while ratepayers would have to bear the major burden of losing their largest single ratepayer, the Gas Company.

The company in 1899 bought nine acres of land at Glyne Gap, a few yards outside the borough boundary, and started construction. The gas works opened in 1907 and remained in use till 1969, with the buildings being demolished in the early 1970s. In 1988 work started on building both the new 17-acre Ravenside shopping and leisure centre on its site, and also the Safeways (now Morrisons) supermarket where the first gasworks was in Queens Road.

The second 1899 scandal that created a major landmark in today’s Hastings was the failure to build a large harbour. Work had begun on constructing it in 1896, with most of the western arm being built by late 1897. But then the finance ran out, and the harbour company spent 1898 trying to raise more funds.

But the scheme collapsed in February 1899 when the Financial Times revealed that the site was 'altogether unsuitable' because it was too far from a station and the roads were bad, and the promoters were misleading investors by wrongfully giving the impression that the scheme was part of the public works of Hastings Council. The newspaper called it a 'disastrous undertaking' and 'a piece of grievous stupidity'.

The unfinished harbour has at least provided some sheltered beach for the Hastings fishing boats, and there are some other positive mementoes of 1899. In March that year the Empire Theatre of Varieties opened in Pelham Place. In 1910 it was converted into the Royal Cinema De Luxe, and then in 1965 into today’s De Luxe Leisure Centre.

And in September 1899 the Hastings Winkle Club was formed at a meeting of some fishermen in the Prince Albert pub (now the Mermaid Cafe) in Rock-a-Nore Road. It aimed at giving the poor children of the borough a happy time at Christmas, and it held another of its children’s parties in December last year.

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