Exhibition toimagine future Winchelsea

A NEW exhibition opening next week will imagine what Winchelsea looks like in 50 years time.
By The Newsroom
Published 22nd Oct 2012, 09:38 BST

Winchelsea Reborn opens on Tuesday at St Thomas’s Church and runs until Saturday November 3 from 10am - 4pm each day but 12 - 4 on Sundays.

The exhibition displays the work by undergraduate architecture students from the University of Brighton, who were asked to plan the rebuilding of the long-abandoned western and southern quarters of the Ancient Town. The scenario was a dramatic expansion of the town over the next 50 years, as rising sea levels drive the population of the surrounding low-lying area into the town. Winchelsea finds itself at the end of a peninsula projecting into the sea and once again with a harbour. For the students, the scenario provided a means of exploring the meaning of a city and discovering how sudden urbanisation in a place with a very distinctive history and topography might generate extreme urban identities. Their visions of the future draw fully on the past of Winchelsea, but also offer an intriguing mirror on the contemporary town. Entry is free but donations to church funds would be welcome.