Bexhill-on-Sea

View from rooftop of the De la Warr Pavilion

Bexhill-on-Sea is a traditional English seaside town, about 20 minutes away from the castle. I had a free day yesterday, so decided to take advantage of the castle minibus, which was offering a trip there. It turned out that I was the only one who went, and I had a great time exploring for a few hours!

Bexhill is most famous for its De la Warr Pavilion, a modernist art gallery. I went there first, and walked around the Andy Warhol exhibit that is visiting the Pavilion right now (no photos allowed inside, unfortunately).

I also went out on the Pavilion's roof terrace to get some photos of the waterfront and ocean. It was really overcast, not sunny like it has mostly been so far, and the sky and the water looked so pretty!

Afterwards, I walked to the nearby Bexhill Museum, which reopened in 2009 after an extensive upgrade project. It had two galleries (history of fashion, history of motorcar racing) that were very modern in presentation, and were obviously the results of the upgrade. The 'original gallery', holding everything non-fashion and non-automobile related, seemed very crammed and out-of-date by comparison! It was still really interesting, although some of the juxtapositions made me smile- there was a display about cuneiform writing, containing a block from one of Nebuchadnezzar II's buildings in Babylon, and right below it was a glass-topped table showcasing English tobacco tins. Along the wall was a mix of displays: Ancient Greece, Sussex in the Ice Age, Ancient Peru, and Woodland Wildlife! There were only two other visitors in the whole museum so it was certainly nice and quiet :)