Then and Now - Carlisle Parade / White Rock / Robertson Street |
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 I was looking through my archive the other day and discovered a nice little set of four albumen prints of the seaward end of Robertson Street in the 1860’s / 1870’s so I ventured out into the cold today and took a few modern pictures by way of comparison. |
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Looking east, there is very little change to the buildings as far as Carlisle Parade is concerned, looking west to White Rock on the other hand the street scene has changed considerably – Hastings Pier hasn’t been built – that will happen in 1872 and the White Rock Brewery the lowest building, almost in the centre of the photograph hasn’t yet been replaced by the Palace Hotel, that happened in 1889 and is now Palace Chambers. Most striking is the narrowness of the promenade and, although it’s not immediately apparent, the main road runs down Robertson Street, Carlisle Parade was only there to service the buildings on the front of the America Ground and the wide seafront with car parking underneath had to wait for Sidney Little’s visionary efforts in the 1930’s. The original sea wall still exists though and can still be seen running the length of the Carlisle Parade underground car park – it gives a clear indication of the amount of promenade pinched from the sea. The wide slope that the donkey is standing on was necessary for the bathing machines to access the beach. The caption on the Bench ( 2493) reads “HASTINGS LOCAL BOARD OF HEALTH” and the same caption has been noted on other seafront benches of the time. |
Note also the ‘stovepipe’ hats of the carriage drivers. The very small carriages in the high-level picture are probably goat carts – as the name suggests small carts pulled by goats for children.  |
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