Pub Heritage Albion
Pub Heritage Group have recently carried out a regrading of Real Heritage Pubs - click here for full details
East Sussex - Hastings
Two star - A pub interior of outstanding national historic interest
Listed Status: Not listed
33 George StreetHastings, Old Town
TN34 3EA
Tel: (01424) 439156
Email: info@albionhastings.com
Website http://www.albionhastings.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheAlbion
Real Ale: Yes
Real Cider: Yes
Lunchtime Meals: Yes
Evening Meals: Yes
Nearby Station: Hastings
Station Distance: 850m
Public Transport: Near Railway Station (Hastings) and Bus Stop
Bus: Yes
View on: Whatpub
What a haven amid tacky seaside Hastings! For this we must thank the Edinburgh brewers, Younger’s, who held it in 1930s (their most southerly pub) and the present enlightened owners. There are two very different bars. That on the right is a glorious late interwar celebration of Scottishness by Youngers with a sequence of tartans, all labelled, set in the upper tier of the wall panelling: they were restored in time for Burns Night in January 2018, including replacing six panels which had been lost or damaged. Other examples in Younger’s London pubs are long lost so this is a rather special collection. This wonderful room (entered by a lobby from George Street) may have once been divided but nothing is now clear. On the left the high-ceilinged bar seems to have been given a 1930s makeover with panelling (minus tartans) mirroring that on the right-hand side. The counter was evidently once longer and its details are the same as in the right-hand bar and thus suggest it’s part of the Youngers’ refit, complete with the brick fireplace. In about 2016 the current owners commissioned the lovely wallpaper frieze depicting the ‘rolling hills of Albion’ (the beautifully crafted metal counter and bar-back tops date from about the same time).
Two four-storey buildings originally a hotel - the rooms above have been converted into flats but still retain the original marble fireplaces. The hotel bar was converted to a pub in 1947 by Wm Younger & Co, and has rare interior featuring wood panelled walls to picture-frame height with different Scotch tartans around the top of the panelling with the name in gold underneath, but several of the panels are well faded/damaged and the odd one missing.
Bare wooden floored public bar has two 1930s brick fireplaces and was originally three separate rooms - snug facing the sea (with now locked out of use double doors), public at the rear (with a good vestibule entrance on the George Street side.) and hotel reception with food servery for the restaurant area (existing front entrance) where the bar now is. The original bar was on the opposite side, and was a more modest structure (evidence of where it was positioned can still be seen). The current bar and bar back is a later addition from another pub. A stage was added as part of the refurbishment of late 2015.
The left hand bar has recently been brought into much greater use. It also has fielded panelled walls to about six feet in this high ceilinged room but there are no tartan panels here, It has an old bar back fitting with mirrored panels but the good looking bar counter which is shorter than the bar back and matches that in the public bar must also have been imported. It retains a 1947 brick fireplace and there is a modern painted frieze of the countryside above the panelling. Good cornice and ceiling decoration painted brown. Changes were undertaken in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Full Description
Bare wooden floored public bar has two 1930s brick fireplaces and was originally three separate rooms - snug facing the sea (with now locked out of use double doors), public at the rear (with a good vestibule entrance on the George Street side.) and hotel reception with food servery for the restaurant area (existing front entrance) where the bar now is. The original bar was on the opposite side, and was a more modest structure (evidence of where it was positioned can still be seen). The current bar and bar back is a later addition from another pub. A stage was added as part of the refurbishment of late 2015.
The left hand bar has recently been brought into much greater use. It also has fielded panelled walls to about six feet in this high ceilinged room but there are no tartan panels here, It has an old bar back fitting with mirrored panels but the good looking bar counter which is shorter than the bar back and matches that in the public bar must also have been imported. It retains a 1947 brick fireplace and there is a modern painted frieze of the countryside above the panelling. Good cornice and ceiling decoration painted brown. Changes were undertaken in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
