Holy Trinity Church, Hastings

Holy Trinity Church stands in the heart of Hastings, a Victorian seaside town in East Sussex. Built in the 1850s by architect Samuel Sanders Teulon, it occupies a cramped town-centre site once part of the America Ground. Teulon’s Decorated and Early English Gothic design squeezes nave, chancel, porch and vestry onto the awkward plot. A planned tower was abandoned after landslips and rising costs forced changes. English Heritage recognises its importance by listing the church at Grade II*. The church’s interior is richly decorated, with intricate carvings by Thomas Earp added in the 1890s. A polygonal vestry and a miniature Lady chapel below the organ chamber are unusual features. The chancel arch, pulpit and rood screen were all designed by W. H. Romaine-Walker. Local benefactors Countess Waldegrave and Lady St John helped fund the building. The organ, installed in 1896, was later repositioned by Heslop of Exeter. Visitors enter through the angled porch on Robertson Street, where a large Trinity figure fills the tympanum. Inside, the six-bay nave and south aisle lead to the carved chancel roof and apse. The north side faces Trinity Street with six cross-gabled bays and tall lancets. A shallow hipped roof marks the spot where the tower was never built. The font, dating from 1858, carries foliage carvings added in 1903.