The weather app promised bright sunshine, and while the view out the window didn’t quite match up, we imagined how nice it would feel when it arrived, and decided that it’d probably clear up by the time we reached our weekend destination – Rye, East Sussex.
Rye
The weather didn’t keep up it’s end of the deal, but thankfully, no matter the weather (and I always seem to go in extreme conditions of some sort – last time was during a heatwave), Rye is always beautiful. The town dates back to medieval times and features cobbled streets and a range of higgledy-piggledy architectural styles. Rye is a lovely place to wander round and explore at your leisure. As it was so cold, we didn’t spend too much time here on this trip, but here were our highlights. I hope to pad this list out further on future visits.
Cobbled Streets Galore
Mermaid Street is the most famous of Rye’s cobbled streets, but there are plenty of others to choose from. I find Church Square very atmospheric.
The Mermaid Inn
The cellars of The Mermaid Inn date to the 12th century, but the building you see before you today was rebuilt in the 1420s after a fire. Yes, it really is very, very old.
The Mermaid Inn also provides a link with Rye’s smuggling history – in the eighteenth century it was a secondary headquarters for the Hawkhurst Gang, who controlled territory along the South Coast from Kent to Dorset. Nowadays, it’s a hotel and a perfectly safe place to stop for a drink or a meal. However, it is reported to be haunted, so there’s that to consider.
We didn’t head inside on this trip as we were there quite early in the day and dry January has really put a dampener on going to the pub. We’ve been to the bar before and it’s been very charming indeed.
Shopping and Eating
Rye has a busy high street packed with independent shops and restaurants, but there are other shops dotted around. Don’t forget to check out the antique and vintage shops across from the bottom of Mermaid Street.
Rye is also the location of the original Knoops store, opened in 2013 – there are a few more around now, but we try to visit this one whenever we’re in town. Their focus is on expertly crafter chocolate drinks, and you can get nicely involved in creating your perfect concoction:
- Choose your drink: hot chocolate, iced chocolate, milkshake or mocha
- Choose your cocoa percentage: from 28% up to 100%
- Choose your milk: cow, oat, almond, coconut, soya or hazelnut
- Choose any extras: salt, pepper, spices, herbs, fruits, roots, marshmallows and cream
I tend to find something I like and stick with it: my favourite is a 70% iced chocolate with coconut milk, ginger and lime. Ben’s more adventurous and is planning to try out all the staff’s favourites.
Other Things to See and Do
A lot of the tourist attractions seemed to be closed during our visit, but here’s a quick list of some of the tourist attractions in Rye.
- Rye Heritage Centre
- Rye Castle Museum (two locations in Ypres Tower and East Street)
- Lamb House
Hastings
Keen to move on to a potential indoor activity after our cold morning in Rye, we hopped in the car and pootled along the coast to Hastings. This was only our second visit to the town, and I like it there – it’s a bit gritty in places, but the Old Town is charming, and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s on offer.
On this trip I had a singular focus – the Hurvin Anderson exhibition at Hastings Contemporary.
Salon Paintings is a celebration of Anderson’s Barbershop series. It’s a series of deconstructions and reconstructions of the same barbershop, exploring the concept of Black spaces. Anderson has been working on the series since 2006, and his largest and final pieces (which form part of the exhibition) were created in 2022. This exhibition seriously lived up to my expectations.
Next up was Nengi Omuku‘s exhibition, The Dance of People and the Natural World. If you’d asked me beforehand, I would have told you this wasn’t my kind of thing – too impressionistic, too pastel. Well, I was wrong. The combinations of colours produced a vibrancy I hadn’t expected, and the artworks have a soothing and meditative effect. I think the way they are made and displayed, using oil paint applied to a traditional Nigerian cloth called sanyan, and hanging loosely against the walls, contributed to this effect. In this case my expectations were smashed.
The final exhibition was The Fourth Wall by Roland Hicks. This features doors and other pieces of hardware (and sometimes the illusions of doors and hardware) creating a patchwork across the two sea-facing walls in the gallery. I struggled to engage with this show as much as the other two – I’m much more of a painting kind of girl. However, I did think the trompe l’oeil effects, painted on details such as the holes in the side of a Billy bookcase, were a fun surprise.
All the current exhibitions are on till 3rd March 2024.
So, I think that sums up our chilly little January day trip. I’m definitely planning to head back to both Rye and Hastings at some point later this year when the weather is nicer. There is so much to explore in each location!
