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Warrior Square, St Leonards-on-Sea

Warrior Square

The building of Warrior Square was completed in 1864 according to the Hastings Chronicle. There doesn’t seem to be much more information about it that I can find. Warrior Square is an expanse of gardens surrounded on three sides by mostly grand Victorian buildings. There has been some considerable reconstruction done in recent years. Fortunately the architects of the new buildings have at least tried to honour the original designs. If you were in this photo and turned 180 degrees from this perspective you’d be looking out to sea.

The view has not changed much in over 100 years as this almost duplicate image taken 1907 shows.

The statue in the centre is of Queen Victoria. It was unveiled in December 1902 to commemorate the old Queens death. Created by Francis John Williamson, Victoria’s own private sculptor, it is now a grade II listed statue. Rumour has it that during World War 2 a ME109 tried to machine gun a woman and her baby as they strolled along the seafront. The pilot missed them but hit the statue. A bullet hole can still be seen clearly today. Whether the story is true, we’ll probably never know.

You can view this photo of Warrior Square full size on Panoramio by clicking on it. You can zoom and pan about and see more detail than in this low resolution image.

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