New life in community use for 12 Claremont

Many have wondered while walking past the elegant 12 Claremont – next door to Hastings Library–what is going to happen to it. It was intended as an extension of the library but that dream rose and fell. Well now, at last, this historic building has been acquired by Heart of Hastings CLT who will bring it back to life as a Community hub. Lauris Morgan-Griffiths went along to the celebration of its successful acquisition to learn more.

12 Claremont is a distinctive five-floor Victorian building next to the ornate Brassey Institute, home of Hastings Library. It has had a rich history – it once housed the first telephone exchange in Hastings, and possibly the whole of the South East, as well as being a workers’ reading room, art school and café, not to mention hosting tea dances and artists’ studio at different times.

The building has been acquired by Heart of Hastings Community Land Trust as a community asset transfer on a 125-year lease from East Sussex County Council with the aim of transforming it into an inclusive, creative and affordable neighbourhood hub for working, living and community action. Since interest was first shown in 2016 via Project Art Works, negotiations have been on going with ESCC, and eventually council approval was given and the 125-year lease transferred in 2022 for community use. The cost of renovating the building is about £2.5-3m – daunting but not impossible since £2m has already been deposited, so work is ready to start.

The ground floor will be the province of the lead tenant, Project Art Works (2021 Turner Prize nominee), who will develop a gallery and studio space to host a programme of exhibitions and create studio space by and for neurodivergent artists. They have been showing artwork  by those artists in the ground floor window of 12 Claremont since 2019 – however, the company will not be abandoning their present HQ in Braybrooke Terrace.

As the building is developed Project Arts Works will also run inclusive community events and forums for caregivers and workers, as well as raising awareness and training for volunteers.

The first and second floors will house “pods” for collaboration and short stays for artists, workers and activists, and the top floor artist studios, while the lower ground floor will be a community space plus an adult changing space. 

The gathering of friends and trustees of Heart of Hastings at 12 Claremont was to celebrate the eventual acquisition of the lease. I walked round the building with former owner of the property Caroline Le Breton, who rescued the building from dereliction, renovated it over ten years and ran it as a creative centre. She is pleased that the building will be returning to community use as it was when previously inhabited by the YMCA, a workers’ reading room and assembly hall.

When she sold the building she had hoped it would be repurposed as a library, which was the intention until a survey showed the different floor levels between number 12 and the Library next door. Understandably, she has found it upsetting passing the building over the past ten years and seeing it unused and neglected. Although she had worked on the building to make it safe, old buildings deteriorate without a bit of tlc, which, hopefully, Claremont will now get.

Caroline, who now runs Claremont Studios in Kings Road, St Leonards, says of her time as owner: “Although challenging  it was a privilege to be able to take care of 12 Claremont for a while. Built as an assembly rooms and hostel by the Trinity Church opposite, I think it embodies the best of Victorian and Christian values, namely charity, fellowship and congregation. I congratulate Jess Steele and Heart of Hastings in their persistence over the last 10 years and am pleased it is once again in public ownership. I really   look forward to seeing it open, active and engaged with the community once again.”

It was sad that much of the interior had been ripped out, including the original tongue and groove, and a lift too which, hopefully, will be reinstated. What was odd was that Caroline’s cushions had been left, waterstained but recognisable, and a plant pot. Also a few labels had been left stuck to the wall after the final art show before they all finally left the building.

When they turned the lights out no one realised how long the building would be dark. However, new life is being breathed into it and it will live again.

Heart of Hastings

Heart of Hastings is one of only seven of the Architectural Heritage Fund’s pilot Heritage Development Trusts (HDT’s) working to create new futures for towns and city centres across England that define their communities. This innovative model can turn neglected heritage assets into foundations for economic, social, and cultural resurgence.

Hastings Commons is an ecosystem of local organisations, White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures, Leisure & Learning and Jericho Road, who are working together to deliver community led regeneration through community ownership and  by offering locally affordable capped rents.

The restoration project is supported by the Hastings Town Deal, Architectural Heritage Fund and Historic England. The development will be managed by White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures, a social enterprise property developer and partner organisation within the Hastings Commons.

Together with Heart of Hastings CLT and Project Art Works, among others, they make up an ecosystem of organisations who are working together to promote community-led regeneration of the “Hastings Commons,” a collection of land and buildings brought into community ownership around the Trinity Triangle area, offering locally affordable capped rents, in perpetuity.

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