Hastings Literary and Artistic Old Town

In 1860, a Brighton doctor recommended seaside holidays for health. The health tourists who started coming to Hastings included many writers and artists. The artists were attracted not only by the health-giving qualities of the sea air but also by the clear colours of the landscape and by the fact that lots of doctors came to live here to look after the health tourists. Maybe the writers and artists were hypochondriacs or maybe they had time to write and paint because they weren't well enough to do other things.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his friends came to live in Hastings and started the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. They were aiming at a natural style of painting. Their themes were myths, Shakespeare, scripture and so on. You can see lots of them on greetings cards.
Rossetti married the main model for their paintings, Elizabeth Siddall, in St Clement's Church. She died of a laudanum overdose after a miscarriage. She was delicately beautiful.
Rossetti's sister, Christina, also lived in Hastings. She is famous for her hymns and poems, including 'Sleep at Sea'.
Charles Dickens loved Hastings and used to read from his work here.
Lewis Carroll did lots of his writing here each summer when he stayed at 2 Wellington Square.
JMW Turner painted loads of beach and sea scenes in Hastings.
Basically, Hastings is the centre of the literary and artistic world as well as being a beautiful fishing town with a beach-launched fleet.
Read about this Turner painting here