Brandard (John) after John Thorpe.

Hastings, Thomas Mann, 1850.
one of eight locally published scenes from ‘Mann’s Views of Hastings and St Leonard’s’, after the local artist, John Thorpe, who was born in nearby Fairlight in 1813. This view shows the beginnings of the elegant and modern Victorian seafront that started at the corner of Robertson Street, where the publisher had his picture framing and gallery premises, extending at this date only for one block, before the construction of the Queen’s Hotel, set back behind gardens, eventually to be flanked to the east by a comparable block to the one seen here, all set at the foot of the West Hill, topped by the ruins of Hastings Castle. This is all in contrast to the figures on the beach in the foreground waiting for the fishing boats to return, as a reminder of the active commercial nature of Hastings Old Town, seen in the distance to the right, with its historic beach-launched fishing fleet. At this date, travellers were obliged to proceed down Robertson Street to Wellington Place and Castle Street before being able to return to the seafront, as this stretch of the coast road and promenade was not contructed until the 1930s, when the engineer, Sidney Little, moved the sea wall 70 ft out over the beach to accommodate them,.