When you wander around Hastings, and if you are looking you’ll notice a fair number buildings of building that seem at odds with the rest of the architecture. Some of these buildings are eyesores and others are just bland. Bland best describes the building that now is home to the Santander branch on Queens Road. Its predecessor was the Bedford Arms Hotel, a pub and hotel established in 1865. The damage was caused by a direct hit by a German bomb on 5th October 1940. Three people were killed in the explosion, and several others injured.

You can read a little about the history and see a photo of the Bedford Arms Hotel on the Hastings Pub History website here, and view another photo of it here.

Hastings took a real pounding between the first raid on 26th July 1940 and the last on 29th July 1944. During that time 550 high explosive bombs, 762 incendiary bombs and 15 V1 rockets fell on the town. These caused 154 civilian deaths and 699 injuries.

I would like to thank Nathan Goodwin who kindly provided me with the original image.  His excellent book, Hastings at War – 1939 – 45 paints a detailed picture of those dark days. It is available to buy on Amazon here. The two photographs I’ve used to create the image above are below.