“Show your love” events on 11th February and Valentines weekend will mark the opening of Eagle House and celebrate new spaces at 12 Claremont and the Observer Rooftop
Hastings, 29 January 2026 - Hastings Commons is proud to celebrate the opening of Eagle House after a comprehensive refurbishment bringing this old building right up to date as an asset for the community. Its launch on 11th February will be accompanied by a number of events to welcome people to celebrate and show their love to other recently opened spaces at 12 Claremont and the Observer Rooftop.
Home to the Common Room - a place for folk to sit down with a cuppa, have a chat, and feel more human - Eagle House is now also home to the Youth Commons where we work with 11-18 year olds, responding to their wants and needs in and around Hastings. Joining the Youth Commons on the lower ground floor are OBX, Hastings Commons’ Creative Technology hub, who work with communities to run workshops, talks, exhibitions and arts projects. We have renovated three further floors to a high quality, offering genuinely affordable rents to support socially conscious businesses to thrive.
At 5.00pm on Wednesday 11th February we are opening the new-look Eagle House for the first time with a collaborative welcome hosted by the Youth Council, the anchors of the Public Living Room, and OBX - showing it’s here, open and ready for you to Show Your Love! The Youth Council will be serving up soft drinks and homemade sweet treats, doing crafts and offering tours of the new space. The Common Room’s friendly team of anchors invite you in for a chat and a cheese experience, while OBX will be opening their new exhibition, Machine as Collaborator?, on the floor below.
Continuing the theme we then invite you to Show Your Love to 12 Claremont, another building beautifully restored to serve as a vibrant hub for creativity, inclusion and community engagement where our tenants will host the continuation from 6-8 pm. Amici Studios on the top floor have begun building a local community of creatives, hosting events, exhibitions and discussions, while our friends at Project Art Works have taken residency and activated the ground floor as a gallery, workshop, event space and shop. We invite you to share in their vision for greater representation and visibility for people with complex support needs. And have a glass of something.
If that’s not enough, and while love is in the air, the roof-top bar at the Observer Building will reopen at the weekend for cocktails, cakes (and blankets). After a fantastic summer pop-up, come Show Your Love for the OB on date night, mates night or self-love night this Valentine’s weekend and enjoy the best views in town. With plans to reopen permanently later in the year, every penny of profit from the rooftop goes into supporting the work we are doing at the Youth Commons. So it’s a drink with purpose.
‘Six years ago on Valentines Day 2019 we first got the keys to the Observer Building, and we celebrated with a party to show it our love. This year we have two new Valentines - Eagle House and 12 Claremont - and we’re celebrating with a number of events across the romantic period.
The launch of the Common Room and the Youth Commons at Eagle House are the latest milestones in Hastings Commons’ mission to return historic buildings to public use in ways that are inclusive, sustainable and locally rooted. We thank the Rayne Foundation, Clothworkers Foundation, Towns Fund, Youth Investment Fund and Big Issue Invest who continue to make this possible. ‘ - Gini Simpson, Hastings Commons Creative Lead
“There are so many of the regular visitors that are eagerly waiting to see the new Common Room. I can't go a week without being asked when Eagle House is reopening, people are excited." - Christine Cheverall, long-term anchor of the Public Living Room
So tell your friends to come along to Eagle House and 12 Claremont on the 11th Feb, get romantic on the Observer Rooftop at the weekend (13th-15th Feb), and be one of our 790+ valentines this year (join as a CLT member!).
