Eastbourne Beach (Grand Parade)

Eastbourne’s main resort beach runs from the Pier to Wish Tower, half a mile to the south. Backing the beach is the promenade, lined with grand Victorian hotels leaving little doubt of Eastbourne’s seaside heritage.
There are plenty of other vintage features too, including a fine bandstand, all of which serve to preserve this slice of classic British seaside.

The seafront is also home to the famous Floral Carpet Gardens. Located next to the pier these form just a part of Eastbourne’s extensive seafront gardens.

As with most beaches along the Sussex coast Eastbourne is not sandy. In fact the tide has to be a long way out before there is any evidence of sand. It is a typical south coast beach with pebbles and shingle divided up by a series of wooden groynes.

One of the beach, and indeed town’s most prominent features is the 1,000ft (300m) long pier. Opened in 1870 this is a grand pier with an impressive pavilion at the seaward end. However, over the years it has suffered at the hands of storms, German bombs and more recently a fire in 2014. The good news is that the pier has been fully repaired and is open for business as usual.