The St Leonards Arch marked the boundary between Burton’s St Leonards and Hastings. The arch, which was built in 1837, was designed to cater for the traffic of its day. As both Hastings and St Leonards expanded, and the numbers of tourists increased the arch was perceived as an obstruction. One night in 1895 it was demolished. It seems that the council acted in an underhand way, but information about the event is hard to come by.

This image was commissioned by Victoria Seymour to be the front cover image of her new book ‘Looking Back on Hastings’. If you are interested in the history of Hastings, and the characters who made it this book is an ideal read. It can be ordered from here.

The two original images I’ve used to create the one of St Leonards Arch above are below.