BuiltWithNOF
Now and Then

 

To love Newhaven is really very difficult and yet, surprisingly, you find so many people who do.

Much of what you see is very shabby, especially in the rundown town centre shopping area. Regeneration has been the objective for years and certainly some has been achieved and more is on the way. Against all the odds Oakdene Homes achieved much for Newhaven’s West Bank and were looking to complete that work and start on the Eastern side of the river when suddenly they were overcome by financial disaster and went rapidly into administration.

The rest of East Sussex and neighbouring Brighton look to Newhaven as a convenient dumping ground for anything regarded as too unpleasant to be near them. The most recent infliction by them on the long-suffering Newhaven residents is a billion pound waste burner intended to come into operation in late 2011.

 

But Newhaven made an indelible historical mark when a ferry link with Dieppe was established in 1847 with associated trains to London and Paris.

The town became a key staging post for the rich and famous travelling between these two very fashionable European Capitals, staying overnight at the London & Paris Hotel then situated on the East Quay. The hotel itself was hardly a vision of striking architecture - being shaped like a very large box with windows and doors - but it was imposing, impressive in size and presumably had elegance inside.  It was built just before 1850 and demolished about 1960.

The main feature for travellers was the very convenient positioning. Located on the harbour quayside with an entrance and covered way right alongside the ferry mooring there was a similar entrance and covered way directly on to the nearer of the two Newhaven Harbour Railway Station platforms and a bridge over to the other.

Legendary Charles Wells, “The Man Who Broke The Bank at Monte Carlo”  reportedly held so many wild parties at the hotel that eventually he was “asked to leave” and instead rented a house in Fort Road where presumably he “Carried On Partying.”
 

to Newhaven

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