Eagle House:
The Possibilities are Endless
White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures (WRNV) – and, in spirit, the whole community in the Hastings Commons – have acquired Eagle House, formerly Daltons on Cambridge Road. And as soon as possible, they will be opening their doors and inviting the people of Hastings to come in and start using the space in “this wonderful, quirky building”. The hope is to work together with local people to stop it becoming vacant, and to develop some completely new town-centre uses.
Eagle House
These new uses could include an “open living room” where you can “relax, share, laugh and look out for each other,” and a co-living housing solution for people ready for independent living but wanting to be part of a supportive community.
“After the Covid pandemic, Hastings is crying out for ways to reconnect,” says Susanne Currid, Business Manager of Leisure & Learning. “We hope our spaces will create infinite ways for people to come together and thrive.”
Plans include an open living room, a base for the Hastings Library of Things, a Trinity Triangle Heritage Action Zone people’s popup museum, and a programme of wellbeing activities for groups hosted by Hastings’ creatives and practitioners.
Maff Potts of Camerados visited WRNV last week and discussed the principles behind Public Living Rooms and being a ‘camerado’; “how to create a space where people are there to look out for each other instead of trying to fix each other.” A tour around the building, revealed all sorts of potential spaces in the building. Jess Steele, a director of WRNV, says: “Now more than ever we need new approaches to buildings and spaces that are developed by, with and for local people rather than profit.”
These are inspiring ideas that WRNV are looking forward to trying out; the public are invited to visit Eagle House soon and help “create a space for humans”, a place where people want to be together on good days and bad days.
• For more information on Camerados and Open Living Rooms visit https://camerados.org
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