A Little Local History
Jan. 30th, 2023 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloThe Eastbourne Quaker Meeting House originally consisted of a late Victorian cottage and two stable blocks arranged around a courtyard. The site was purchased in the 1930s- by which time the stables were being used as garages- and converted into a complex of meeting room, classroom, kitchen and other facilities. The new(ish) building was opened in 1939 and got wrecked by a German bomb a few years later. (No-one thought the Germans would bother to bomb sleepy little Eastbourne- only they did- quite heavily.) The Meeting House was rebuilt in the 1950s- still on the original footprint- with much attention paid to practicality and very little to aesthetics.
We had a couple of visitors from Lewes yesterday. Their Meeting House is a heritage building (1784) which has had bits and pieces bolted on over the years- with steps and staircases all over the place and a rear end that is threatening to slide into the river. It is currently being swarmed over by builders who are doing what they can to bring it into the 21st century. "How nice to have a purpose-built Meeting House," said the man. "I know it's not a very Quakerish thing to say, but you people got something positive out of the War..."
We had a couple of visitors from Lewes yesterday. Their Meeting House is a heritage building (1784) which has had bits and pieces bolted on over the years- with steps and staircases all over the place and a rear end that is threatening to slide into the river. It is currently being swarmed over by builders who are doing what they can to bring it into the 21st century. "How nice to have a purpose-built Meeting House," said the man. "I know it's not a very Quakerish thing to say, but you people got something positive out of the War..."
