Moving to Eastbourne

nj.kingston

Hi

My wife and I are thinking of moving to Eastbourne or Stone Cross but don't know the area very well. Can anybody give advice on good the areas and those to avoid? We were particularly unsure about one house we've seen due to the area. It's in a close off Hazelwood Drive. The close itself looks nice but we were unsure about the surrounding roads.
Any local insight would be much appreciated.

marksoton

People go to Eastbourne to die. The only place more popular for this pastime is Christchurch.

david1951

Eastbourne is nice and surprisingly good when it's sunny. Close to the seven sisters national park if you like walking/cycling....but there are a LOT of older folk. I wouldn't call it 'buzzing'.

I would personally want to be closer to the sea than stone cross. Holywell and Meads are popular and you might actually see some younger people near the university campus.

Malmo

Brighton's more mature & possibly retired cousin.

The seafront is actually quite nice compared to many other coastal towns around the south. Beachy Head has unfortunate connotations (look it up on Google) but has beautiful views and is nice to visit in good, calm weather. Birling Gap is also worth a visit.

The only residential area I know is the Langney suburb, which seems decent and has a shopping centre.

pizzarelli7348

i lived in Eastbourne over 10 years ago and it was a bit dull. The area around the shopping centre was not very nice. The best part I believe is Meads and that is reflected in the property prices. Good luck with our search

nj.kingston

Thanks for all the comments so far. Keep them coming. We have visited the area several times (currently live 45mins away) and stayed in a B&B for a week to trial the commute but this only scratches the surface. You don't really know what a place is like until you live there a while.

phoebe1989seb

We looked into buying in Eastbourne about five years ago - we were mid-forties, DS had graduated and was living in London so it was just the two of us - but we found it very dull. The houses we looked at were in the Old Town area - one was in Victoria Drive. The local shops were rather unappealing - and Waitrose was pretty dire compared to branches we'd been used to - but I guess things might have improved.

Friends of ours are in the process of selling in Bournemouth and buying there (similar age to us) as their daughter is doing a doctorate at Sussex uni, and they could get much more house for their money in Eastbourne than Brighton They are also buying in the Old Town area.

elverson

The only place I've been where I could cycle faster than free-flowing traffic - retired drivers are not in a hurry!

Cakeguts

The best solution would be to rent something there so that you can get a feel for the area before you buy then if you don't like it you can move and try somewhere else.

Hoploz

The views here are all similar ... But we don't really know what the OP is looking for! It's possible they want a slower pace of life by the seaside.

Myself, I don't know the residential parts at all, but have visited a number of times, for the fantastic annual Airshow, and for the shops. I spend a lot of time in nearby Hastings, which has a totally different vibe but very little in the way of big shops.

From what I've seen the seafront is very nice, and there is a good range of shops in the town and the out-of-town retail parks.