“A cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down”*

* 1960s TV ad

I arrived in Bexhill-on-Sea at the home of my cousin Jan (Morrison) Sparkes and her husband Chris.

Jan and I are fifth cousins who share a great (x4) grandfather.

We had previously shared family trees and now we were going to share a meal, but first we took in the sights of Bexhill.

I do love modernism and behold…

The De La  Warr Pavillion is a Grade One Listed 1930s modernist building on the sea front in Bexhill on Sea, widely considered to be the most important British Modern Movement building of the inter-war years. It is the only building noted in south-east England in my modernist architecture app.

Designed by Eric Mendelssohn and Serge Chermayeff, its design and construction were radical. The pavilion was the first public British building in the International Style – a Peoples’ Palace embodying Modernist architecture’s concerns with healthy living conditions, and making art accessible. 

The Pavilion was extremely popular in the years immediately following its opening in 1935, and though it fell on hard times since then, it has recently refurbished to former glory as a centre for the arts.

And a bandstand too.

Adjacent to the pavilion, and right on the seafront, are some unusual Edwardian cottages built with an Indian influence during the period that Nripendra Narayan, the Maharaja of Koch Bitar, was convalescing in Bexhill.
 

The beachfront promenade was constructed just after these dwellings. Its café was closed on my visit but Jan says it is a delight in summer, which I can well imagine.

There are some other interesting architectural detail to many of the mansion houses along the beachfront.

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And what beach would be complete without some pebbles.