It’s 2026 and the town feels like it’s stuck between worlds. Our Council cancels elections ‘because they cost too much’ (didn’t realise democracy came with that kind of price tag). Reform seems to be surging onward, to the immense satisfaction of some and the deep disturbance of others. We still have that pesky housing crisis and all the ‘social’ developers are still building homes the poorest can’t live in, while demolishing homes that would get people out of temporary accommodation or off the streets. Conquest has lost its cardiology ward – a hospital that many of us both loathe and depend on continues to shrink. Care workers are being treated like slaves as once charitable or socially-minded organisations are sold on to rapacious private companies.
It’s like we’re having a party on the cliff edge, and somewhere between the beats from the speakers you can make out the creak and crack of rocks falling away down into the sea. What do we do this year Hastings? How quickly do you want to fall?
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The latest from Hex
- Why We Need Pride
Words: Oli Spleen, B&W Images: Estate of Fred W. McDarrah Ten years ago this June, a gunman walked into Pulse, an LGBT+ venue in Orlando Florida and opened fire. Forty nine people died as a result. Deeply shaken by the news of this tragedy I was honoured to be asked to write a poem for… - Never Again Means Never Again
Words: Oli Spleen Feature image: Corrina Eastwood, March for Palestine, Central London, October 11th 2025Images below: Eamonn Burke-Duggan, Hastings Jews for Justice protest Saturday 21st March 2026 On Saturday April 11, police outnumbered peaceful protesters on Hastings seafront as seven people were arrested simply for holding signs opposing genocide. In February the High Court ruled… - Building Lives: are Co-ops the Only Hope Left?
Words: SGH Image: Hastings Rental Health’s new plot.A co-op isn’t just a weird little group of people opting out of wearing shoes together, it’s a collective making a joint decision that something would work much better without any self appointed, self-entitled whoevers exploiting us or doling out unnecessary orders from upon high. Cooperativism is co-operating… - Cycling Routes in Hastings: the £10.6mil question
Words: David Williams. Images: Hastings Urban Bikes. It’s unavoidable sometimes, but making comparisons to our capital city (L**don) are often unhelpful, even damaging. Take housing, for example. In the city, it is now not uncommon to be paying close to a grand a month for a room in a shared house! And the median house… - A Month to Decide the Next 20 Years
Words: Merlin Betts Artwork: Chris Sav @disappointman Well, it was a little more than a month to decide, and they’re backdating it so it’s more like the next 18 years, but you get the idea. The Local Plan is out for consultation, and our Hastings future is being decided. The decision-makers are a government in… - Hastings police arrest protesters disrupting unethical sale of social housing
On Saturday 21 February campaigners from Housing Rebellion interrupted an attempt by Southern Housing to auction a property intended for use as social housing. 4 Wellington Gardens is a three bedroom house, built by the government in 1922 as part of their “homes fit for heroes” initiative to provide affordable homes for working class families… - Four Courts Tenants Misinformed About HASHTA
Words: Andrea Cowhig, Treasurer of Hastings Area Southern Housing Tenants Association (HASHTA). Image: “The Battle of Hollington” by P.A. Uri, the Marquis of Markwick. All Four Courts residents recently received a newsletter from Southern Housing (SH), please see our response, as there was some misleading information in there regarding HASHTA, which is rather upsetting. All… - “I’ve killed so many men, but I saved one”
Words: Oli Spleen. Gig photos: Jeff Pitcher. “I’ve killed so many men, but I saved one” – Lydia Lunch says as she puts an arm around me to pose for a photograph at The Piper, Norman Road. She’s just torn through an incredible set with her band Big Sexy Noise. Any attempts to define the… - Mutual Aid in Practice: Interview with Dawn Dublin
In December 2025, the podcast team at Hex interviewed local powerhouse Dawn Dublin at Hatton’s Yard, a community space in St Leonards currently trying to remain open despite financial and arguably political pressures. Dawn Dublin set up Black Butterfly as an afro-centric mutual aid organisation in the 2020 lockdown. It was among many other mutual… - Accidentally Enjoying Art
Words: Lizzie Beck. Pictures: Tatenda Mikey and Hatton’s Yard. Where I live in St Leonards it is well established that there are as many art galleries as there are coffee shops. Which is actually pretty impressive for a small town. But why is this worth mentioning? Because in six years I’ve been in every one… - Is it 1984? ‘We must cancel elections to defend the stability of our democratic institutions’
Words: Grace Lally. Pic: protests outside East Sussex County Council last year. Elections are being cancelled and opposition groups have been forced to resort to the courts to defend the democratic right to vote. In Putin’s Russia? In Trump’s America? No, this particular anti-democratic stunt is being pulled by our own local councillors here in Hastings and… - Headdress Heist Gone Wrong
Just before Christmas it hit the headlines: we’ve stolen a Native American chief’s headdress. We, as in England generally, but also Hastings and its Museum specifically. Now, I know a Hastings boy did once stain his skin with tea and head out for Canada to pretend to be ‘one of them Red Injuns’. That happened,…