Priory Quarter Hastings | Proctor and Matthews Architects

Phases 1 & 2 of the Priory Quarter redevelopment in Hastings were fully completed in 2010. At a pivotal location midblock between Priory Street and Havelock Road, they comprise of Lacuna Place (facing Havelock Road) and One Priory Square which creates a contemporary frontage to Priory Street and the new Priory Square.

Lacuna Place is a mixed-use development and provides an open plan flexible office space on four floors above retail and restaurant areas at street level. Adjoining Lacuna Place is One Priory Square, which provides a flexible office or education space of 5,300m2.  The building is now occupied as the headquarters for Saga. This marker building provides flexible floor layouts dependent on demand and current client requirements. There are over seven levels with a pronounced double height entrance opening onto the new Priory Square to the south. Boardroom space on the upper floors has direct access to framed balconies, capturing dramatic views of the Hastings roofscape, castle and distant coastline. Both buildings sit over basement car parking.

Lacuna Place successfully repairs the existing fragmented Victorian street frontage of Havelock Road at the heart of the Central Hastings Conservation Area, to connect the retail heart of the town with the Central Railway Station. We adopted a design approach that would respect and repair this historic streetscape.

Analytical drawings of the existing facades on Havelock Road were prepared which examined scale, rhythm, horizontal and vertical emphasis and material qualities. We modelled designs against the differing intensities of light and shade. These studies were used to develop an interwoven skin of projecting and receding planes which could successfully engage with the visual dynamics of the complex townscape when viewed either down the hill toward the town centre or up towards the railway station. The selection of materials for this elevation was inspired by both the immediate streetscape and the prominent Hastings Castle cliff. Here rock, brick and vegetation combine to create a woven filigree of colour and texture forming a unique backdrop to the town.

 Devised from historic Hastings street patterns; ‘twittens’, which are small scale pedestrian routes, have been created to connect and link Havelock Road with the new Priory Square to the rear of Lacuna Place.

 At the inflection in the Havelock Road frontage the entrance to the pedestrian twitten and principle entrance to Lacuna Place (an internal twitten) are marked by dramatic gestures in the facade composition. Pedestrians enter the twitten beneath punctured openings in the white stucco and brick skin which drop shafts of light into the colonnades below, while visitors to Lacuna Place approach the parallel ‘internal twitten’ beneath a four-storey projecting hooded bay.

 As well as the two new street frontages created in this development, the backs of each building face each other to form an informal courtyard. On emerging into Priory Square the architectural expression of the buildings change dramatically, from the studied contextual response of the Havelock Road facade to the uncompromising colourful expression of the office buildings.

 Priory Square, a new public square at the heart of this masterplan links two principle streets of Hastings, and the station plaza to the north, through a series of stepped paved planes, and provides a vibrant focal point within the town. Black basalt plinths and generous steps provide a relaxed ‘stage’ for impromptu street performance and social interaction. The new pedestrian routes contribute to an extended framework of public spaces and historic pedestrian links across the town.