News & Thoughts

Our Community Land Trust annual report is now available Here are some highlights from the report: This year we launched many new projects and programmes, including the Hastings Youth Commons evening club: March 2024 also signalled the end of the 4 year Trinity Triangle project. Here are some of the outcomes: Here is a quick...Continue reading→

Hastings Commons has been awarded a £1 million grant from the Hastings Towns Fund to support the delivery of 12 affordable, sustainable and energy efficient homes in the Observer Building, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. The OB Homes project will repurpose 765sqm of previously derelict floor space on the second and third floors...Continue reading→

Read about the Observer Building renovation with an architectural focus in the Riba Journal

by Jess Kinch (a young person who took part in the programme) What is Commoning the Programme and how did you get involved? Commoning The Programme was an opportunity that I and other young students were given where we commissioned an artist for the Coastal Currents Art Festival. I got involved when people from OBX...Continue reading→

6th/7th/8th September: Dream/Time & Invented Futures  Made collaboratively in Hastings and thinking into the future, Hastings Commons & OBX are proud to present two new art works as part of Coastal Currents 2024.  Dream/Time, by artist Mark Lawson Bell, has been chosen through a programme by OBX (at Hastings Commons) called ‘Commoning the Programme 1’. Over 12 weekly...Continue reading→

Hastings Commons have launched a new programme called ‘Alley Way Learning,’ and will be holding an open day on 10th August between 11am – 1pm in Priory Meadow shopping centre (Queens Road, Hastings, TN34 1PH). The programme, which is designed to make learning accessible to the local community, takes inspiration and consultation from the successful Australian...Continue reading→

Hastings Commons were pleased to commission live illustration artist Esther Springett to sketch a piece during the recent Radical Retrofit workshop which was held on 18th July as part of the Centenary Celebration for the Observer Building. Esther is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker and creative producer based in Hastings, UK. Esther’s practice is social and often stems...Continue reading→

Read about IF_DO’s transformation of the Observer Building, alongside Hastings Commons in the Architects’ Journal.

In the Observer Building’s centenary year, works to restore the façade of the building are now complete. Designed by architect Henry Ward and built in 1924, the Observer Building is a historically important building that housed FJ Parsons’ printworks, home of the Hastings & St Leonards Observer. The printworks closed in 1984, leading to a cycle of...Continue reading→

Are you a young person aged 16-24 interested in creative technology? We are looking for someone to help the OBX team with technical support in running workshops, talks, exhibitions and arts projects. OBX is the creative technology hub within Hastings Commons, based on the mezzanine floor of the Observer Building and often runs its events...Continue reading→