We held our street party on Sunday 29th July as part of the Old Town Carnival week, closing off the road to traffic and transforming the street for the afternoon, launching our free West Street Chronicle publication and running a number of events and activities. 



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​The West Street Chronicle

A 24 page colour publication, designed by Luke Herriot of Studio Ink, written and edited by Lorna Crabbe, with dozens of contributions from volunteers and local people - articles, family snapshots, original artworks, prose, written memories, a poem and a hand-drawn map centrefold, plus historical records and plans, archival photographs, newspaper cuttings, announcements and adverts. 

The West Street Chronicle aimed to provide a background to this long ignored street - to contextualise its position in the Old Town, to provide information about businesses and events based there and to celebrate the lives of long-forgotten people who lived and worked on the street. The map visually links anecdotes, little-known facts, interesting tittle-tattle, unusual occurrences and colourful characters. i.e. the derelict house full of pigeons, Lord Tiverton and his banana yellow Rolls Royce, a leather workshop producing fetish gear, a political cartoonist, a donkey, a serial killer, an injured seagull, a drunken cypriot man with one leg, house fires, suicides, an octopus, a nineteenth century smugglers’ den, a recording studio and local legend Biddy the Tubman. 

2,500 copies were produced and the Chronicle was distributed at local events throughout Carnival Weekend beyond. The History House, Hastings Fishermen’s Museum and local bookshop Hare & Hawthorn have all kept stocks, which are still regularly topped up.  

Feedback to the Chronicle has been overwhelmingly positive, dozens of people have been in touch to tell us how much they enjoyed reading it, how surprised and moved they were by the stories inside and how it has encouraged them to consider their own street. Do get in touch if you would like a free copy as we do have some still available. 

Our first event Illuminating West Street: A Winter Salon in partnership with Home Live Art was funded by Arts Council England and ran over the first weekend in December with a programme of free special events & performances on and around West Street that featured: 

'Sybil' - a ten foot snail from the Insect Circus
A vanishing lady, a white rabbit and other mysterious acts & encounters presented by Duo Bogof
A Christmas Carol by candlelight read by Anthony Roberts, director of Colchester Arts Centre
A Christmas 'Grottoesque' by artist Peter Quinnell
Street decorations and illuminations from Radiator Arts
Ye Olde Curiosity Swap Shop presented by Transition Town Hastings
Family storytelling, singing and projections by artist/ musician Ed Boxall
Workshops + Open studios
These events run alongside the popular Hastings Old Town Spirit of Christmas event.