All things Eastbourne

I took a trip down to Eastbourne today to do further exploration and also to walk out my design. I'm planning a sculpture walk through area as part of the design so visited the Towner Contemporary Art Gallery in Devonshire Park. It was very worthwhile. There is an exhibition called New Eyes and it has been curated by a group of six local artists, part of Bluemonkeynet.

Inspired by the Marcel Proust quote "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes", they chose pieces of work from a range of artists that had meaning to them. Very relevant to Sovereign Park as I feel new eyes are needed to visualise how the landscape could be in the future. There was a sketch concept by David Nash of 10 groynes from Eastbourne seafront:

David Nash Concept Sketch on display in Towner Art Gallery

The final installation is in Manor Gardens, Eastbourne, so I thought I'd go and take a look.

David Nash Art Installation in Manor Gardens

They reminded me, not of groynes but of totem poles with faces and images carved into them. Of course any resemblance to images is just erosion from the elements. Set in the park I thought they looked quite good BUT they were set in a slightly raised circle with a wooden edging - the message was very clear, look but don't touch. A real shame as the wood invited you to feel it, so I'm going to make sure that the installations in my design are accessible to walk through and touch.


Further inspiration has come from Hargreaves Alchemy of Landscape Architecture, a really lovely book. Page 139 shows dynamic sculptures by David Nash that are fun, out of proportion and quite playful. I hope to get quite a good job when I finish this course and to work for a company like Hargreaves would be amazing, I'd learn so much and be involved in really exciting projects. Anyway that's a little way off at the moment. Back to Eastbourne.


Armed with tape measure I walked the seafront from the pier to Sovereign Park, measuring all sorts of stuff along the way. I played a game with myself of guessing how wide or long something was and then measuring it to see if I was right. All I can say is by the time I got to Sovereign Park my accuracy was improving!


Along the way I noticed what a complete blot on the landscape the waterworks are, very visible from quite a distance.

Looking East, the waterworks building is quite visible.

En route I passed the beach huts, they are just fabulous and how lovely that on the 6th January people are sat outside their hut on the lounger enjoying the sea and the sunshine.

Beach huts along the Eastbourne promenade, with their owners enjoying the January sunshine.

Sovereign Park, plan in hand, I walked it out. Really worthwhile as my hunch about too wide paths and other spacing niggles were right. I can adjust them now and hopefully the overall balance of hard and soft will work. It was such a beautiful day, bright sunshine and very little wind (which after the last few days is hard to believe) and quite a few people walking along enjoying the day. Other than when I cycled along there last April, each time I've visited the weather has not been so good and it does influence how you feel about a place, I stayed a lot longer than I planned because I was enjoying it and now I'm excited to get on and make the changes.


I looked in a little more detail at the supposedly protected area, it needs a lot of work, quite a few invasive species and clearly not much respect from the locals!

Dog walking in the SNCI! Hey ho