St Leonard's Church

St Leonard’s Church stands on the West Hill in St Leonards-on-Sea, a seaside town in East Sussex. The first church was built in the 1830s by James Burton, the developer of the new town, who also designed the building himself. It occupied a dramatic cliff-top site reached by a steep climb, with the nave and chancel carved into the rock. The church had a south-facing entrance, a battlemented bell tower and lancet windows in the Gothic style. Princess Victoria attended services here in the 1830s, and the building soon became a fashionable landmark. Structural problems soon appeared, and the chancel collapsed in 1837 after a cliff fall. On 29 July 1944 a V-1 flying bomb struck the church during a Saturday night raid. The explosion destroyed the tower and nave, leaving only a crater where the building had stood. No one was killed, but the loss left the parish without a place of worship. The War Damage Commission agreed to rebuild on the same site, and the Gilbert Scott brothers were chosen to design the replacement. Their bold modern Gothic church was completed in 1961 and remains in use today. Visitors find a light-filled interior with exposed stone walls and a high timber roof. The west end holds a large round window, while the east end contains the altar beneath a shallow chancel arch. The tower is set back from the cliff edge, avoiding the instability that troubled the earlier building. From the churchyard there are wide views across the English Channel and along the Hastings coastline. The surrounding West Hill area retains its Victorian character, with terraced streets leading down to the seafront.