When I told friends I was going to St Leonards-on-Sea for a weekend, most hadn’t even heard of it, yet everyone is familiar with neighbouring Hastings. Even locals struggle to define the boundary-blurred East Sussex towns: “I see it as where the pier (Hastings Pier) is,” offered one.
You’d think St Leonards would be the more famous, as while it lacks the battle-led history of Hastings, it was Queen Victoria’s favourite resort. There’s a lot to love, with fine Regency and Art Deco terraces and squares joined over the past few years by multicultural, multifaceted restaurants and an arts and music scene topped with DJs from Norman Jay to Don Letts. Even Banksy came and sprayed a toddler building Tesco sandcastles on the beach.
On a warm Friday night, my friend Rosa and I check into The Knowle (theknowleatstleonards.co.uk), a handsome hunk of Arts and Craft-era B&B set high on a hill a swift 15-minute walk from the station. Aside from the squawk of seagulls, it’s incredibly peaceful.
To the front, there’s a sweet cottage-style garden with an oval-shaped lawn ringed by bee-friendly flowers where you can read a book or sunbathe. It’s beautifully preserved with original Victorian features from stained glass to tiles and fireplaces. If the period charm appeals, books on restoring Victorian houses line the lovely living room as does a piano and sink into sofas. Owners Derval and Dave (what a comedy double act their names would make) bought the house during Lockdown offering guests just three rooms with luxurious modern yet period-style bathrooms and fresh flowers.
Through the weekend we punctuated our eating and drinking by lingering in some of the many second hand shops en route, including Teddy’s Tinker's (everything from antiques to clothes), Pass Muster (restored furniture, rugs, gifts) and Positive Retail (surplus stock and second-hand designer items) among the highlights. But food was our focus.
Dinner was at Bayte (bayte.co.uk) on the King’s Road, which rhymes with bait, but is not, as the name suggests, a purely fish-focused restaurant. Co-owned by the daughter of the Petersham Nurseries founders, the interiors blend industrial with vintage — old school chairs, iron columns, parquet and bare plaster — and a modern British menu with a touch of Italian and a lot of seasonal organic farm produce and vegetables from nearby Lewes.
We shared small plates such as crispy parmesan-crusted cubes of tapioca with pickled chilli, crispy courgette fritti with honey, mint and labneh (you’ll find there’s a whole lot of labneh in this town) and a fresh-flavoured linguine dish with gurnard, fennel and saffron. Each dish was excellent and worth getting on the train for (a benchmark for defining a good meal in a place you don’t live in).
Sated, we toddled back up the hill to sleep in our massive room with rustic floorboards, thick wool rugs and two armchairs positioned facing a large window overlooking the rooftops. Breakfast in the formal dining room was granola, stewed plums and yoghurt or eggs, avocado and sourdough with fancy touches such as slices of figs with cheese and freshly blended juices.
After breakfast, we walked to Hastings by meandering through Alexandra Park, a 109-acre green sprawl of ancient trees, a cafe, tennis courts and ponds, which took us almost all the way. Like many coastal towns, rows of colourfully painted houses charm before you spot the inevitable, but useful, pound shops. Parallel to the seafront, George Street is a pedestrianised part of Hastings Old Town, lined with independent book shops, tattoo parlours, vintage clothes shops and bars. Just past it, Hastings Contemporary is a low-level new build with a gallery space currently devoted to Ethiopian artist Elias Sime, whose pieces include delicate mosaics which turn out to be ingeniously repurposed computer keyboards. There’s a glass-walled cafe with views over the fishermen’s huts and pebbled beach, but we’d booked lunch back in St Leonard’s.
We walked the 30 minutes to Colombo 16 (colombo16.co.uk), a restaurant on the curved cruise-ship-inspired Grade II-listed Marine Court, run by culinary whizz Caleb. His mixed white Irish and Sri Lankan heritage imbued him with a love of cooking fusion food with elements of both heritage cemented by spending a year in a hotel restaurant in Sri Lanka. Now, he runs a popular restaurant with immaculately presented dishes eaten in a space where the original corrugated metal interior was retained to tap into the Sri Lankan coastal vibe.
Perfectly presented small plates, from deliciously charred cubes of tender pork belly with roasted black curry powder aioli, to sunshine-yellow crispy coated squid rings tossed in turmeric with fresh lime, chilli and finely sliced red onion, are sure fire crowd pleasers and account for repeat bookings.
Pre-dinner drinks at the Goat Ledge (goatledge.com), a fun-filled promenade bar with benches on the beach and colourfully-painted beach huts made us want to linger longer. Sipping spicy Korean margaritas and rum punches with a friendly crowd, united by enjoying the sea views and tunes on a warm saturday night felt like the best place to be.
However, we had dinner plans at The Royal (theroyalstleondards.co.uk), a gastropub in a green-painted Victorian building opposite the wonderfully named Warrior Square station. It’s a place with atmosphere, charming staff you want to hang out with and a constant stream of drinkers and diners. It all makes sense once you know it’s part of the collection of well-established places such as St John and Moro where owner James Hickson has made his mark.
Chef Andrew Taylor Gray’s CV includes the Petersham Nurseries. It earned Michelin Bib Gourmand status for what they call ‘unfussy seasonal food.’ I’d agree — crispy fish-finger-shaped fried polenta with nutty Stichelton raw blue cheese, honey and chilli, juicy bavette steak with well-roasted potatoes and red peppers, Neal’s Yard cheeses with posh crackers and relish. I don’t go to pubs alone, but I could happily sit here all day.
On Sunday, we browsed in independent shops where every single person chatted to us and nosed around the fragrant Thai and Mexican stalls at Heist street food market before lunch at Supernature (wearesupernature.co.uk). Monthly Sunday ‘disco roasts’ are the thing here but we can’t resist the small plates cooked by genial chef-owner Mark, who commandeered restaurants in London for many years before decamping to the coast.
Standout dishes include milky burrata with local thyme-roasted cherries, which could equally be a starter or pudding, tender and gnarly rose-soaked, sumac-seasoned lamb belly skewers, also cooked in the wood oven, on labneh, super-sized pink king prawns swimming in garlic butter and Spanish tapas-staple, Padrón peppers. Puddings also keep their end up with a satisfying and strangely refreshing burnt Basque cheesecake with strawberry compote. Eat outside in the mural-lined yard listening to summery DJ-mixed soundtracks.
Then it was time to stop eating and drinking and get the train home. During our weekend, everyone we met told us to move down from London, as they had done; after such a perfect weekend it’s probably just a matter of time.
Doubles at The Knowle start from £180 B&B, minimum two night stay. theknowleatstleonards.co.uk
