This was taken in Battle Road, St Leonards just up from the pedestrian crossing. When I saw the original image, whilst browsing the Hastings Forum Old Buildings and Streets pages. the scene seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite work out exactly where it was taken from. It was the buildings that confused me. The only thing left over from the time this photo was taken in the brickwork gate where the shorter of the two boys are standing on the right. Everything else has gone.
I can’t find out what what happened to the cottages, although it appears that three bombs hit nearby during WW2. In addition, when you look at the road layout depicted in that map, with the road layout today there has been a considerable change. Perhaps these buildings were simply victims of redevelopment and improvement of the road system.
The tram service only extended up Battle Road a little further than shown here. This particular tram would take you to Silverhill, St Helens (Cemetery) and Ore. The tram lines were removed after 1927, to be replaced by trolley buses. The entire overhead power system was finally dismantled in 1959 and replaced by motorised buses.
The two photos I’ve used for the image above are shown below. You can view the top image larger size on my Flickr page by clicking  on it.
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