Help! have I read too much scary info on this forum..?

[Michael]

[quoted]
The Badlands wrote:
I took a walk down the old town, today, and had a proper look around. It is much better down there with great little independent shops and bars and very different people. I enjoyed it and it was the first time I've felt comfortable here.

SV, if you are going to come and live here, that's the place you want to be, in my opinion. It's nothing like St Leonards, or even the main town centre of Hastings.
[/quoted]
There you go then, the Old Town is the place for you, you won't find anything like it in Bexhill.

[Michael]

[quoted]
The Badlands wrote:
I took a walk down the old town, today, and had a proper look around. It is much better down there with great little independent shops and bars and very different people. I enjoyed it and it was the first time I've felt comfortable here.

SV, if you are going to come and live here, that's the place you want to be, in my opinion. It's nothing like St Leonards, or even the main town centre of Hastings.
[/quoted]
There you go then, the Old Town is the place for you, you won't find anything like it in Bexhill.

[Gerry Glyde]

In the 1960s we used to say that pensioners went to Bexhill to die - and then forget to do so. As I am now in my 60s I can remark that it was not a balanced view but it did provide a pen picture. When I am down for a visit I stay at various B and Bs and will walk from St Leonards to the Old Town; or top end of Sedlescombe Rd North by St Helen's Rd to the town; or Silverhill via Bohemia to town at night and have never seen anything that disturbs me or otherwise makes me think of calling the police. If anything the town centre at night is less busy than when I left in 1978.

[Richard]

We're not living in a rural backwater/small village with a Mill Pond or Village Stocks and so it would be folly to compare a place like Hastings to one and quite unrealistic.
Hastings/St. Leonards, like any number of small towns, has a few night clubs where youthful violence is prone to occur between males in connection with drinking/girls/drugs.
Fights with serious outcomes have occurred, I remember the Arab student at the old college of St. Leonards, sent here to learn by a good family in Saudi Arabia, killed a few years ago by an assault.
And the tragic case of the young kid of mixed-race left brain-damaged from a blow to the head (by a former soldier) along the St. Leonards sea front more recently.
These types of event are sickening but not at all a true reflection on the vast majority of decent hard working families and residents.

All the more reason, however, not to encourage dislike of anyone with a different coloured skin/racial background

[Michael]

[quoted]
Richard wrote:
We're not living in a rural backwater/small village with a Mill Pond or Village Stocks and so it would be folly to compare a place like Hastings to one and quite unrealistic.
Hastings/St. Leonards, like any number of small towns, has a few night clubs where youthful violence is prone to occur between males in connection with drinking/girls/drugs.
Fights with serious outcomes have occurred, I remember the Arab student at the old college of St. Leonards, sent here to learn by a good family in Saudi Arabia, killed a few years ago by an assault.
And the tragic case of the young kid of mixed-race left brain-damaged from a blow to the head (by a former soldier) along the St. Leonards sea front more recently.
These types of event are sickening but not at all a true reflection on the vast majority of decent hard working families and residents.

All the more reason, however, not to encourage dislike of anyone with a different coloured skin/racial background
[/quoted]

That last incident happened at Glynde Gap Richard_ _ _..which is more Bexhill the SL, but I get your drift and agree with most of what you are saying.

[drwatson]

SV,

I think you really need to put things into perspective. I live between StL and London. I have lived in SE London for most of my life and have a mixed commute spending periods of time in both places.

St Leonards may not have the cash and inflated property prices of it's immediate neighbours but it's a vast improvement on most of London. Lots of people on this forum seem to be relocating from SE London from places like Lewisham.. To compare StL to these areas is simply ridiculous. A few kids with dogs and drifters on the beach with a can and a spliff is a million miles from the street gangs, gun crime, knife crime, crack heads and violence that effects most of SE London daily.

Everyone moans about lack of facilities in StLeonards??

Take a walk into Croydon and try and find somewhere to eat that isnt a Wetherspoons or a global fast food chain. Try and find an art gallery_ _ _green space that isn't being patrolled constantly by hoodies.

St Leonards and Hastings may be a rough diamond, but it is a diamond nevertheless. It has soul and a real sense of community. As an outsider I have always had a warm welcome by the locals. I moved to an area that has been utterly slated on this forum up from Warrior Square. I am continually confused by people's ongoing negative opinion of Central StL. I Iive in a 4 bed regency townhouse that cost the price of studio flat in London, I know my neighbours, (who are a young family and very friendly) I can see the sea from my living room and can be on the beach in under a minute from my front door. Independent shops- bakers, butchers, grocers, great restaurants and live music venues less 10 minutes walk. Great traditional pubs. It's an amazing place if you take the time to scratch the surface.

I guess it depends on what you want our of life but you will walk a long way to find such an interesting an unique place anywhere else on the South Coast that is as anywhere near affordable.

my two penneth.

[roy]

[quoted]
drwatson wrote:
SV,

I think you really need to put things into perspective. I live between StL and London. I have lived in SE London for most of my life and have a mixed commute spending periods of time in both places.

St Leonards may not have the cash and inflated property prices of it's immediate neighbours but it's a vast improvement on most of London. Lots of people on this forum seem to be relocating from SE London from places like Lewisham.. To compare StL to these areas is simply ridiculous. A few kids with dogs and drifters on the beach with a can and a spliff is a million miles from the street gangs, gun crime, knife crime, crack heads and violence that effects most of SE London daily.

Everyone moans about lack of facilities in StLeonards??

Take a walk into Croydon and try and find somewhere to eat that isnt a Wetherspoons or a global fast food chain. Try and find an art gallery_ _ _green space that isn't being patrolled constantly by hoodies.

St Leonards and Hastings may be a rough diamond, but it is a diamond nevertheless. It has soul and a real sense of community. As an outsider I have always had a warm welcome by the locals. I moved to an area that has been utterly slated on this forum up from Warrior Square. I am continually confused by people's ongoing negative opinion of Central StL. I Iive in a 4 bed regency townhouse that cost the price of studio flat in London, I know my neighbours, (who are a young family and very friendly) I can see the sea from my living room and can be on the beach in under a minute from my front door. Independent shops- bakers, butchers, grocers, great restaurants and live music venues less 10 minutes walk. Great traditional pubs. It's an amazing place if you take the time to scratch the surface.

I guess it depends on what you want our of life but you will walk a long way to find such an interesting an unique place anywhere else on the South Coast that is as anywhere near affordable.

my two penneth.






[/quoted]

Very well put,but its sad that people are being forced out of London due to the crime and enviroment,I think the flow to here could turn into a stampede in the not too distant future.





Enjoy life.you never know when it will end.

[lixxsi]

WOW!! - drwatson - What a wonderful and eloquently articulated post! I 100% agree with you.