At the far western end of Eastbourne’s seafront, where the promenade runs out beneath the first white cliffs, lies Holywell — the town’s loveliest hidden corner. Behind its sunny beach and the “secret garden” amphitheatre of the Italian Gardens is a story most visitors never suspect: a sacred spring, a vanished fishing hamlet, a chalk quarry, and one of Britain’s first cross-Channel telegraph cables.
The holy well itself
Fresh springs have always trickled from the low cliffs here, and one of them gave the place its name. As far back as 1787, James Royer’s guide to Eastbourne recorded a spring called the Holy-well, prized for the supposed benefits of drinking its waters; a Victorian guide later claimed it was a curative mineral spring, though analysis eventually showed the water had no special properties at all. Historians offer a rival theory too: locals have always pronounced the name “holly-well,” so it may simply have been the well by a holly tree. Either way, the little spring below the cliffs — recently restored — can still be found by those who know where to look.
The lost fishing hamlet
Long before the promenade arrived, Holywell was a tiny working fishing settlement: a cluster of cottages and net shops beneath the cliff, with lime kilns worked by the fishermen and a rocky pinnacle nicknamed “Gibraltar.” The fishermen even cut a passage through the offshore reef so their boats could reach the beach at low tide. Its end came with the town’s growing thirst: after Eastbourne’s main water supply turned brackish in 1895, the water company began drawing from the pure Holywell springs — and the hamlet, sitting right on top of the source, was cleared away for public health reasons in the 1890s. A cheeky local rumour long claimed the fishermen’s wives had sold the cottages while their husbands were out at sea; the truth was more mundane, but the story stuck.
From chalk quarry to Italian Gardens
The horseshoe-shaped hollow that holds today’s Italian Gardens is entirely man-made: it was a chalk quarry, known as the Gore, where quarrying stopped partly because the digging threatened those same precious springs. In the winter of 1904–05 the council transformed the old pit into a public pleasure ground — the “Holywell Retreat” — complete with a tea chalet. Then, after the First World War, the sunken garden was remodelled in elegant Italianate style, with a pavilion nestled into the quarry walls and pergolas above, the work deliberately given to unemployed men in the hard years that followed the war. The result is one of the most unexpected spots on the south coast: a sheltered, wooded amphitheatre that feels closer to the Mediterranean than the English Channel.
Did you know? The Italian Gardens celebrated their centenary in 2022 — the same date proudly displayed on the pavilion at the back of the gardens.
The secret telegraph cable
Holywell’s strangest secret is hidden in plain sight. In 1861 — barely a decade after the first London–Paris telegraph link — a cross-Channel telegraph cable to Dieppe was brought ashore at the beach here, making this quiet cove an early landing point in Britain’s communications revolution. Its terminal equipment was later housed in a small brick building at the entrance to the Italian Gardens, discreetly disguised behind a pergola — and the building survives to this day. It has even been suggested that momentous news dispatches of the age may have passed through the Holywell line. The cable’s working life ended in 1940, when Channel cables were cut amid fears of German invasion.
Royal visitors and wartime
Holywell has had its brushes with grandeur. When King George V and Queen Mary stayed in Eastbourne in 1935 — at Compton Place, the Devonshires’ mansion — one of the beach chalets here was set aside for the royal couple’s use, and the King’s convalescent seaside strolls became part of local legend. A few years later war returned: Canadian troops stationed in the town set up a rifle range in Whitbread Hollow just above, part of Eastbourne’s front-line Second World War story.
Holywell today
Today Holywell is the gentle, unhurried end of the seafront: a shingle-and-sand beach with rock pools at low tide, rows of blue-and-white chalets, the much-loved Holywell Tea Chalet, and the Italian Gardens’ lawns — still used for open-air theatre on summer evenings. Above sit the flower-filled Helen Garden and the start of the downland paths towards Beachy Head. For the full story of the promenade it crowns, see our history of the Eastbourne seafront.
Holywell & the Italian Gardens: FAQs
Why is it called Holywell?
Most likely after a spring below the cliffs, recorded in the 1780s as the “Holy-well” and once believed to have health-giving waters. An alternative theory — supported by the traditional local pronunciation “holly-well” — links the name to a holly tree instead.
What were the Italian Gardens before?
A chalk quarry known as the Gore. The council turned the disused pit into a public garden in 1904–05, and it was remodelled in Italianate style after the First World War, with work provided for unemployed men.
Where exactly is Holywell in Eastbourne?
At the far western end of the seafront, below Meads, where the promenade ends beneath the first chalk cliffs on the way to Beachy Head. You can walk there along the promenade or take the seafront Dotto train in season.
Can you still see the holy well?
Yes — the spring survives beneath the cliffs a short walk along the beach from the tea chalet, and has been tidied up in recent years, though it’s easy to miss unless you’re looking for it.
Keep exploring: our guide to Eastbourne’s beaches, leafy Meads village, and the story of the seafront.