Empty shops in Victorian shopping arcade which was once the pride of Hastings town centre

The Grade 2 listed Queens Arcade in Hastings, built in 1882, is a historic Victorian shopping thoroughfare renowned as the site where John Logie Baird gave his first public television demonstration in 1924.

It was once home to the town centre’s main fish monger and a busy fruit and veg shop, a florist and other businesses.

When the Observer visited, the only businesses were a sweet shop and a hairdressers.

The family run Arcade Fisheries was a Hastings institution and had been running since 1937. It closed in 2022.

Gary Fellows ran Arcade Butchers for 21 years but decided to close in 2021 blaming rent increases that made it impossible to continue.

Many of the Arcade’s businesses, such as the award winning Thai in Town and Coastal Cocoa, are still going but have moved to other locations in the town.

The building was owned and managed, for almost a century, by The Went Tree Trust, set up under a will of 1926 made by former mayor of Hastings, Alderman Ben Harry Went Tree who once owned the Arcade.

In 2021 the Trust put Queens Arcade up for auction. The guideline price was £325,000 to £350,000 but the building eventually sold for £461,000. It received 51 bids.

The sale was criticised by the then Hastings MP Sally-Ann Hart who said: “I am disappointed to see the sale of this landmark building. Businesses in Queens Arcade were only given three weeks notice of the auction and said they were concerned new landlords might push up rents and drive family-run businesses from the Arcade.”