Jenny Lind

Pub Heritage Group have recently carried out a regrading of Real Heritage Pubs - click here for full details

East Sussex - Hastings

One star - A pub interior of special national historic interest

Listed Status: Unknown

69 High Street
Hastings, Old Town
TN34 3EW

Tel: (01424) 421392

Email: reception@jennylindhastings.co.uk

Website http://jennylindhastings.co.uk

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jennylindhastings

Real Ale: Yes

Real Cider: Yes

Nearby Station: Hastings

Station Distance: 1000m

Bus: Yes

View on: Whatpub

Once known as the Bell, this two-room pub is now named after the famous mid-19th-century Swedish opera singer. Look at the exterior and you will realise this Georgian-style building is not all that old. In fact it was rebuilt after war damage in 1943, reopening its doors in 1951 with some old woodwork being reused, particularly in the rear. The panelling in the front room seems more modern: this room was divided into two originally (see the signs in the floor). The two counters are identical and still have the style of interwar work. In the area between the two bars there is a ledge in the door which served the off-sales trade (customers would have used the side door for this purpose). There is a bar billiards table and an old-fashioned scorer. Both sets of gents’ retain their original urinals: the front bar loo has an old penny-in-the-slot device.
Three-storey of brick in Georgian-style. Originally a small pub it was double in size when an adjoining property was added in 1932. Then in 1943 it was badly bombed and after the war it was completely rebuilt. It reopened in 1951 with the back bar being restored with old timbers. The bare wood floored front bar looks like it was originally two separate rooms and has a bar counter curved at each end and it is of inter-war style. Parts of the bar back may be old e.g. the fielded panelling but it is mostly modern. Inter-war style fielded panelling is on the dado and on the left and right-hand side to two-thirds height but it is of a different style to that in the rear bar and looks more modern. A stage has been added on the right-hand side; the fireplace here looks modern. Around the right-hand door it looks like there was a vestibule in the past. There is a widish gap to the rear and the Gents’ has three old urinals. The back bar also has a bare wood floor, the panelled bar counter curved at both ends is of an inter-war style and identical to the front bar counter. However there is no bar back and the dumb waiter has been added in modern times. The fielded panelling to two-thirds height does look old. There is a 1930s brick and wood surround fireplace and, unusually a herringbone brick panel alongside. Some benches might be from the 1940s. There is a bar billiards table and old fashioned scorer. The gents here has four old urinals. Between the two bars there is a hatch / door for staff with a ledge that is currently in use as reception for the B&B rooms. It looks like it was the off sales as there is a door on the right hand side of the building that would be the entrance to it. On the first floor with an entrance from the left hand side of the building via steps is a small room which has an inter-war brick fireplace.
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