We went to Hastings today - it was miraculously sunny and I enjoyed the long drive over the Romney Marshes, seeing dead badgers and rabbits by the roadside (well, not enjoying that exactly, but...) as well as newish lambs, willows about to bud, alder catkins, daffodils in gardens and other irrevocable signs of spring.
I last went to Hastings about 16 years ago, and had no great hopes of it, however, it was very attractive. It has an "old town" with a fishing area, which includes a good, cheap, locally sourced wetfish shop, two little museums and an aquarium. There is also a very good restaurant called Webbs - which is run in a very traditional French way - good short wine list, nice menu (no specials) but very good fish and other things. Mark had beef rib, I had mixed steamed fish in saffron sauce - very good - and we both had starters of great slabs of smoked fish in my case and rillettes in his. Their olives were fab, and everything was just perfect. They had a maitre d' who looked like something out of a French film - pouchy-eyed (just my type - we matched!) a bit like a nice version of Nigel Farage (arrrrgh!). I could have had rather more adventurous food, but I was trying to be "good" - however, I was undermined by slabs of homemade bread. Sigh. Well, never mind, I've been pretty good this week.
Hastings is always held out as another example of a distressed seaside town like Ramsgate and Margate, which has to regenerate. From what I saw it had regenerated. From Webbs we walked into a little bit of the old town, lots of groovy shops, dozens of restaurants and cafes, the seafront busy with people walking, children trampolining and multi-generational crazy golf games, despite the whipping wind. We sat in the sun and had the first outdoor coffee of the year (I think) and admired the bizarre architecture. We took a funicular railway up to the ruined Norman castle - I sat on the sandstone outcrops and read while Mark inspected the premises. It has all sorts of tourist attractions that Ramsgate doesn't have, and I honestly thought it was streets ahead of us in regeneration terms. It also had a great new art gallery, the Jerwood, which was the chief reason for my visit - but we didn't visit this, because they charged £7 entry - and the show was portraits by local artists. I don't know how it's funded, and why the Turner Contemptible is still free and showing work of international significance - but I wonder how many people want to pay £7 to see work by local artists - however good. I personally hadn't heard of any of them, so I didn't feel enticed by the poster advertising the show, but perhaps some of them are famous. But as Mark said (to my surprise) "For £14 you could have a bottle of wine in a bar!" Sounds as if he's trying to ingratiate himself with me. Meanwhile, I should very much like to know where to buy some Il Modello (sic?) Garganega - it was delicious. Debateable of course whether a bottle of wine provides quite the same mental stimulus as a really good art exhibition - probably not, but it was a moot point whether Jerwood was showing a really good exhibition. And, I should say of course, that I can go and see Bridget Riley around the corner for free at the moment at the Updown Gallery - and something just as good again in a few weeks time probably - and I don't have to travel far for the Turner (Carl Andre has his points I discovered recently). So! Hastings is far bigger and has more interesting shops and restaurants (and probably more holistic health practitioners and baby yoga classes) - but Ramsgate has a sandy beach, grammar schools and er.... well, better access to good art I think.
I last went to Hastings about 16 years ago, and had no great hopes of it, however, it was very attractive. It has an "old town" with a fishing area, which includes a good, cheap, locally sourced wetfish shop, two little museums and an aquarium. There is also a very good restaurant called Webbs - which is run in a very traditional French way - good short wine list, nice menu (no specials) but very good fish and other things. Mark had beef rib, I had mixed steamed fish in saffron sauce - very good - and we both had starters of great slabs of smoked fish in my case and rillettes in his. Their olives were fab, and everything was just perfect. They had a maitre d' who looked like something out of a French film - pouchy-eyed (just my type - we matched!) a bit like a nice version of Nigel Farage (arrrrgh!). I could have had rather more adventurous food, but I was trying to be "good" - however, I was undermined by slabs of homemade bread. Sigh. Well, never mind, I've been pretty good this week.
Hastings is always held out as another example of a distressed seaside town like Ramsgate and Margate, which has to regenerate. From what I saw it had regenerated. From Webbs we walked into a little bit of the old town, lots of groovy shops, dozens of restaurants and cafes, the seafront busy with people walking, children trampolining and multi-generational crazy golf games, despite the whipping wind. We sat in the sun and had the first outdoor coffee of the year (I think) and admired the bizarre architecture. We took a funicular railway up to the ruined Norman castle - I sat on the sandstone outcrops and read while Mark inspected the premises. It has all sorts of tourist attractions that Ramsgate doesn't have, and I honestly thought it was streets ahead of us in regeneration terms. It also had a great new art gallery, the Jerwood, which was the chief reason for my visit - but we didn't visit this, because they charged £7 entry - and the show was portraits by local artists. I don't know how it's funded, and why the Turner Contemptible is still free and showing work of international significance - but I wonder how many people want to pay £7 to see work by local artists - however good. I personally hadn't heard of any of them, so I didn't feel enticed by the poster advertising the show, but perhaps some of them are famous. But as Mark said (to my surprise) "For £14 you could have a bottle of wine in a bar!" Sounds as if he's trying to ingratiate himself with me. Meanwhile, I should very much like to know where to buy some Il Modello (sic?) Garganega - it was delicious. Debateable of course whether a bottle of wine provides quite the same mental stimulus as a really good art exhibition - probably not, but it was a moot point whether Jerwood was showing a really good exhibition. And, I should say of course, that I can go and see Bridget Riley around the corner for free at the moment at the Updown Gallery - and something just as good again in a few weeks time probably - and I don't have to travel far for the Turner (Carl Andre has his points I discovered recently). So! Hastings is far bigger and has more interesting shops and restaurants (and probably more holistic health practitioners and baby yoga classes) - but Ramsgate has a sandy beach, grammar schools and er.... well, better access to good art I think.
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