Category: Hastings Pier

Thoughts about Hastings Pier 10 years after the fire

Posted on by Jess Steele

Today is my daughter’s 20th birthday. A decade ago she spent her 10th birthday in the shadow of the still-smouldering Hastings Pier fire. I had been up all night, watching from the White Rock Hotel while our beloved pier was eaten up by omnipotent flames. Not quite everything was lost (Picture By Nigel Bowles) Those were dark, difficult days for the town. I’m proud of the optimism and ambition that we showed against such challenging odds. I’m delighted that Hastings has the best condition pier in Britain. Community effort and funder support brought it back from the very brink of… Read more…

Statement regarding Hastings Pier

Posted on by Jess Steele

STATEMENT FROM JESS STEELE REGARDING HASTINGS PIER February 2019 Since last summer there has been a disturbing level of polarisation within the town about the pier. I hope that this statement will help to tackle that and remind us of the positivity that was the hallmark of the campaign to save the pier. This statement comes from me as an individual and I’d like to lay out my involvement as clearly as I can. I was one of the local people who got together to try to save the pier in 2006 when it was closed for safety reasons due… Read more…

How the money works

Posted on by Jess Steele

I’m going to try to explain the financial package that Friends of Hastings Pier put together as simply as I can. This is both an exercise in extreme transparency and a practice run for some workshops I’m planning about how money works in land & building development (from a community perspective of course). I’m not going to name our commercial operator partner but detailed information about him and his support team was submitted to the Administrators and the estate agents on 14th June, along with the legal heads of terms of the agreement between us. First a quick rant… Those… Read more…

Hastings Pier – where our hearts are

Posted on by 6970@jrs

After 19 crazy weeks of community mobilisation, commercial negotiation, late night bid-writing, endless spreadsheets, obsessive Crowdfunder checking, and the hard, hard work of keeping hope alive… this is me trying to make sense of what has happened, what has been achieved and the impact of our failure to protect something so precious that it makes grown-ups cry. I didn’t want to do any of this. When I heard that Hastings Pier Charity had gone into Administration in November 2017 I felt physically sick. A phone call with the Administrator in December sent me into a furious depression I haven’t experienced… Read more…

Pride in Hastings Pier

Posted on by 6970@jrs

I was really pleased, honoured, and emotional to be at the celebration event on the Pier yesterday to mark the achievements of the Learning & Education Team which has been funded by Heritage Lottery Fund for the past 5 years. This is what I said: * * * I want to talk about three things: • The people • The achievement (specifically of the heritage & learning programme) • The future The people = so many people, so much love, so much uncertainty and dogged determination to win through regardless. Individuals should be recognised and valued but we must also… Read more…

Hastings Pier… 3 things you can do to help

Posted on by 6970@jrs

“There are battles you think you’ve won, only to discover you need to fight them all over again” – Jonathan Freedland, Guardian 28/4/18 At first, when the Hastings Pier Charity was put into administration in November 2017, it seemed terrible and tragic and tipped me over the edge. Strangely, it now feels like an opportunity. It’s a bit like the Fire in 2010 – the worst thing imaginable but still, in the smouldering, a chance of renewal.  Are we going round in circles or are we making progress towards some kind of destiny??! Maybe both! Friends of Hastings Pier was set up… Read more…

Friends Again!

Posted on by 6970@jrs

The Friends of Hastings Pier (FOHP) has been re-established a decade after it handed the baton of the People’s Pier to the Hastings Pier & White Rock Trust which later set up the Hastings Pier Charity. The Friends are shareholders and supporters who want to be active and constructive in this second crisis for our pier. There are currently 150 signed-up members and 400 members of the facebook group, with many more joining all the time. We want to look forwards not backwards. Just as in the horrible days and weeks after the Fire of 2010 we refused to be drawn into blame… Read more…

The Battle for Hastings Pier

Posted on by Jess Steele

The Story of the Battle for Hastings Pier – by Jess Steele It’s an exciting time for seaside towns and for piers. As we approach the opening of the newly renovated Hastings Pier, it feels important to remember the story of the Battle for Hastings Pier. The pier is a ‘totemic asset’ – something that feels like it belongs to everyone, something that draws people together. Here is our totem as it was… beautiful, derelict. It closed 10 years ago when it became obvious that the owners (an off-shore company called Ravenclaw, registered in Panama to avoid English company law)… Read more…

What’s happening to Hastings?

Posted on by Jess Steele

Change is underway… The Pier will reopen next spring. Local businesses will see footfall improve and new business are already opening up. After years in which the powers-that-be ignored our seafront in favour of ‘grade A’ offices and White Rock was just the gap between Hastings and St Leonards, now the great ‘legacy’ assets of the area (the pier, White Rock Baths, Bottle Alley, the Observer Building, Holy Trinity Church, and the White Rock Gardens) are being brought back to life. We can be proud of the passionate efforts of local people that have made this happen and excited about… Read more…

Two Piers and a Lesson for Local Government

Posted on by Jess Steele

Spot the difference. The real difference between the circumstances – which were almost exactly four years apart – is very simple. The attitude of the council. In Hastings it took a long time and a lot of effort to persuade our council but once we did they were an active partner. At the end of 2008 our first HLF bid was rejected – mainly because the council were “luke-warm”. By the middle of 2010 they were on board and we were meeting fortnightly to progress the project. Looking back, with the benefit of hindsight, knowledge of other piers, and maybe… Read more…

Colwyn Bay Pier – next in line and it needs your help

Posted on by Jess Steele

I’ve ended up knowing much more than I ever expected to about piers! I’m still no expert in any particular aspect but I’ve come to know lots of facts, lots of specialisms, and have an understanding ranging from the technical to the historical to the emotional. And I believe that Colwyn Bay’s pier is next in line. Our emerging vision for the new HLF bid is here. If you can help please email colwyn@jerichoroad.co.uk (we’re particularly looking for specialists in emerging healthy living technologies such as wellbeing apps) Victoria Pier is one of just 31 surviving traditional (open-structure, iron-legged) piers. British… Read more…

Developer Stress

Posted on by Jess Steele

My favourite definition of an entrepreneur is someone who sets out to do something without controlling the resources to do it. I’ve been an entrepreneur a long time. Since my dad got me to write a history of Deptford in the early 1990s and I realised I didn’t want to send it off to some publisher for it to come back covered in someone else’s red marks, so instead we set up a publishing company. I knew absolutely nothing about publishing (the file from those times is still on my shelves and it’s called ‘the mysterious world of publishing’). But… Read more…

Roller-coaster week

Posted on by Jess Steele

It’s been a roller-coaster week here in Hastings. Since handing over the pier project to Hastings Pier Charity, the White Rock Trust has been focusing on the wider neighbourhood and on the second most challenging building in town – the old Observer Building.   We found out a week ago that the Observer Building was to go to auction this Friday (today!) and we have been trying to negotiate a private purchase in advance of that. Last week we asked the receiver what it would cost to take it out of auction and on Monday we matched that offer, including… Read more…

Precious Buildings

Posted on by 6970@jrs

In this country we would never let someone drive a car that was uninsured or dangerous. That’s why we have the MOT system and DVLA to keep records of car ownership.  Yet we allow hundreds of owners to keep buildings and land irresponsibly, the Land Registry role is limited and non-regulatory, and the only fallback mechanism (Compulsory Purchase) is torturous, expensive and fraught with risk. It’s time to do something about it. First we need to know more about the scale of the problem. If you know about a building that matters to the local community but is disused or… Read more…

The People’s Piers

Posted on by 6970@jrs

I was taken aback by the level of interest in the Bank Holiday launch of my Coops UK Fresh Ideas pamphlet ‘The People’s Piers’. Given the coverage – Guardian, Times, Mirror, Daily Mail, BBC News, ITN, etc – I should have put more care into clarifying the argument and also made sure I was in the country to explain it better. The pamphlet tells the story of Hastings Pier – which opened 141 years earlier, on Britain’s first ever Bank Holiday in 1872 – and of the long community campaign leading at last to its transfer from the shadowy Panamanian-registered… Read more…

No resting place but a challenge constantly renewed

Posted on by 6970@jrs

“The Great Society is not a resting place… a finished work. It is a challenge constantly renewed, beckoning us towards a destiny where the meaning of our lives matches the marvellous products of our labor.” – Lindon Johnson Not a ‘finished work’ – no, certainly it isn’t. I have been telling the story of the Battle for Hastings Pier for many years. Since November 2012 when the Heritage Lottery Fund said YES! I have been telling it as a fairy-tale come true, a success against the odds. Two things occur to me now: 1.    It’s not over. Not even to the extent that… Read more…

Pier-to-Pier peer learning

Posted on by Jess Steele

I think we just won a competition on the basis of a good pun. But my co-conspirators say it’s because what we’re doing is really important and worthwhile and brilliant. Could be both?! I’ve always been a believer in peer learning and that’s been reinforced by my pier experience. Inspiration is oxygen. Short-cuts, tips and warnings can make all the difference. The trust and mutual respect between equals (wherever they are on the journey) is crucial. And most important of all is the sense of solidarity in the face of seemingly impossible odds. Hastings Pier & White Rock Trust has… Read more…

Ba-Ba-Boom! Huzzah! Wow! OMG! Thank the Gods!

Posted on by Jess Steele

Sometimes when things work out well we can hardly believe it’s because of us. We want to feel the thunderbolt and praise Thor! I’m really pleased that tonight Hastings Pier was saved. This is how I felt when I knew: But you know what? It wasn’t Thor. I know for definite that it’s all down to the dogged persistence of local people. Tell the story one way and it’s a classic Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has” but tell the true… Read more…

More on #thepeoplespier

Posted on by Jess Steele

Just found these nice pics (30th January 2011) and wanted to share… Have a good look round www.hpwrt.co.uk to find out more.   This is my daughter. The pier burned on the night before her birthday. Having watched it all night I had to go home and make her breakfast. She’s not happy about this sign because it mentions 5th October.      

JUST SAY YES TO THE PEOPLE’S PIER

Posted on by Jess Steele

(as you can tell) I just sent this out by email to a load of people, and now I’m going to infiltrate the Community Organisers blog (just to prove I’m not only a Programme Manager…). If you support local people anywhere taking control of their own big issues, then pass this link on and tweet for #thepeoplespier. * * * * * To friends in and not in Hastings, the Hastings Diaspora and Seasiders everywhere (PASS IT ON) We’re heading for MAKE OR BREAK. The Heritage Lottery Fund are visiting #Hastingspier next week and we have just FIVE WEEKS before… Read more…