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Eastbourne
History - 1945 to today
World War
II devastated Eastbourne. The town was used to house evacuees
at the beginning of the war but itself became an evacuated area
in 1940 following German airforce attacks. Nearly 5,000 bombs
fell on the town, killing or injuring over 1,000 people, destroying
475 houses and damaging 11,000 others. In 1945, Eastbourne's evacuated
population of 40,000 returned to find the town in ruins.
The people
of Eastbourne set about the task of rebuilding with great determination.
Led by the Council under the direction of Town Clerk Francis Busby
both town and tourist trade were rebuilt in a phenominally short
time. The photograph shows the flower beds next to the seafront
in the 1950s.
Eastbourne
has continued to expand with the development of major housing
estates at Old Town, Langney and Hampden Park. In 1963 the Congress
complex was opened, providing the town with its fourth theatre
and venue for the conference trade which has flourished in the
town since the 1920s. New shopping centres were opened at Langney
in 1973 and Terminus Road in 1981.
None of these
developments would have been possible without the vision of the
two great Victorian landowners, William Cavendish and John Davies
Gilbert who created Eastbourne as we know it now. They transformed
a small agricultural town into a thriving seaside resort.
Today, still
inspired by their legacy, Eastbourne continues to develop and
expand, with ambitious schemes such as the multi-million pound
marina at Sovereign Harbour taking Eastbourne forward into the
next millenium.
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