Eastbourne, on England’s south coast, is sometimes described as “the UK’s sunniest place.” It is 19 miles east of Brighton and 54 miles south of London.

Opening in 1880, the Queens Hotel, near the Pier, was the last of the grand hotels to be built in the town. To the East of the Queens Hotel there were smaller hotels and boarding houses built largely between 1790 and 1840.

“Eastbourne was designed and developed by its landowners from the 1850s onwards. Built as a new resort for the rich, the population greatly expanded from less than 4,000 in 1851 to nearly 35,000 by 1891. The town was owned by just two families, the Davies-Gilberts who owned about a quarter of the town, and the Cavendish family, notably William Cavendish, the 7^th Duke of Devonshire, who owned about 2/3rds of the town.  From 1859, plans were laid out to build an entirely new town to attract the higher echelons of society to either live or to holiday here. Designed as a new resort, Eastbourne was built “for gentlemen by gentlemen”. Carol Mills, Brighton University ‘Engels in Eastbourne’.

The Queens Hotel is still an active establishment with 127 rooms, two restaurants and a sun lounge overlooking the sea.