Ghosts
Before we packed our bags and made the monumental decision to move into the cottage, we decided to dig into its history. After some research, we discovered that our dilapidated little cottage sat squarely on the site of The Royal Swan Hotel, one of the grandest buildings on the South Coast, with a recorded history dating back to 1523.
The Swan had an extraordinary past, marked by numerous ups and downs: bankruptcies, scandals and periods of jaw-dropping luxury. When Hastings briefly became a fashionable destination for nobility and artists, the Swan was celebrated as “an island of gentility and refinement”. However, with the arrival of the railway in 1851 and the influx of day-trippers from London, the town no longer needed a posh coaching inn.
Over time, the once-grand establishment was repurposed for séances, displays of ventriloquism and cycling club meetings. By the 1880s, the beleaguered hotel was in disrepair and struggling with just a handful of guests. In a particularly scathing report, a policeman even suggested it was no better than "a common brothel".
Eventually, The Swan was sold at auction for a mere £9,000 – probably what one of its former guests might have spent on a banquet. Shortly after the auction, the fireplaces, pots and pans, and even the door numbers and urinals were sold in a yard sale and the building was hastily demolished. Local architect Henry Ward was commissioned to build Swan Avenue on the site.
