History & Heritage
The history and heritage of Eastbourne: landmarks, famous people, wartime stories, and the town’s past.
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Sheikh Abid Gulzar: The “Mr Goldfinger” of Eastbourne Pier — Profile, Record & Timeline
He painted Eastbourne Pier’s domes gold, bought Hastings Pier for £60,000, and built a seafront hotel empire — now facing a criminal fraud trial he denies. The full, documented story of Sussex’s most flamboyant and controversial businessman, with a regularly updated timeline.
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Eastbourne’s Dark History: The Crimes That Changed British Law
Eastbourne was built on an idea: the quietest, most respectable resort on the south coast. Its darker history is a series of collisions with that idea — and a startling number of them changed British law. The limits of punishment, the right to march, the murder bag, the doctrine of double effect.
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The Salvation Army Riots and the Making of Eastbourne’s Police
Smugglers landed 600 horses’ worth of contraband in Pevensey Bay while the magistrates looked away. A century later Eastbourne jailed hymn-singers under a special Act of Parliament — and hosted the worst Skeleton Army riots in the country. The story of who decided which laws applied here.
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The Eastbourne Tragedy of 1912: The Enys Road Killings
On 19 August 1912, a house on Enys Road was found burning with five bodies inside. The man responsible had married two sisters, neither knowing of the other — and was identified as the brother of the victim in the unsolved Merstham Tunnel mystery. We separate the record from a century of newspaper invention.
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The Hooded Man: The Murder of Inspector Arthur Walls, 1912
In October 1912, Inspector Arthur Walls was shot dead answering a call about an intruder on a porch roof in Eastbourne’s Meads. The Case of the Hooded Man that followed involved a treacherous informant, a witness who recanted in the box, one of Britain’s first ballistics investigations — and questions in the Commons days before…
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R v Hopley: The Eastbourne Manslaughter That Changed the Law
In April 1860, a schoolmaster in a house on Eastbourne’s Grand Parade beat a pupil to death. The case that followed — R v Hopley, the Eastbourne manslaughter — produced a ruling on the limits of physical punishment that English law would lean on for more than a century.
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Why Eastbourne Has 12 Conservation Areas
Eastbourne has no fewer than 12 conservation areas — a strikingly high number that reveals something remarkable about the town. Discover why it has so many, what they protect, and how they safeguard one of England’s best-preserved Victorian resorts.
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The Great Storm of 1987: When Hurricane Winds Hit Eastbourne
On the night of 15–16 October 1987, the worst storm in almost 300 years tore across southern England — and Eastbourne, out on the exposed coast, was among the first places hit. Discover how the Great Storm battered the town and flattened the woods of the South Downs.
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Hidden Meanings Behind Eastbourne’s Street Names
Every street sign in Eastbourne is a clue — to a vanished stream, a Saxon meeting place, a duke’s family tree and a town nearly given a different name. Discover the hidden meanings behind Eastbourne’s street names, from Terminus Road to the mysterious district of Norway.
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Eastbourne’s Fishing Community: The Willicks and Their Heritage
Long before the grand hotels, Eastbourne was a place of fishermen — the “Willicks,” who launched from the shingle and followed the mackerel down the Channel. Discover the story of Eastbourne’s fishing community, from the lost hamlet of Sea Houses to today’s working fleet.