Old Town Outdoor Photo Gallery
More than forty of Hastings Old Town’s shop and bar owners are being celebrated as part of an ‘outdoor gallery’, which has just been unveiled in George Street.
The portraits were shot by Sara-Louise Bowrey, a photographer who normally spends her time shooting some of the world’s biggest bands on huge festival stages, as well as the best of Hastings musical talent in venues around the town.
Originally titled Traders in tiers as a website project on www.hastingsflyer.com to document business owners in lockdown, the series quickly transformed into a way of helping shops and pubs get ready to come out of restrictions and return to normal trading. Now there are twenty-two large prints on display on the boarded-up frontage of the old amusements arcade – with a final few still to come.
John Bownas, who manages the Hastings Business Improvement District (Love Hastings), also runs the Hastings Flyer music listings website in his spare time “With no bands to list or review, this seemed like a good thing to do to support the town – and we had tens of thousands of views across the website and our social media pages within the first few weeks,” he says.
“People started asking about whether we would publish them somewhere else, so we talked with local businesses through the Old Town Traders group and the idea of using these hoardings was suggested. The owners of the building were really supportive, and the council gave us half the money to get the printing done.”
I felt it was really important to let people put faces to the names of shops they pass every day
Sara-Louise Bowrey had her work featured on the BBC during lockdown when she captured the town’s musicians at a time when they were unable to perform live. Speaking about the latest project, she says: “When people talk about supporting small local businesses they are talking about the lives and livelihoods of the people who run them. I felt it was really important to let people put faces to the names of shops they pass or go into every day to help get the ‘shop local’ message even more firmly across.”
“We are so grateful for John and Sara’s help to support us in advertising our wonderful diverse range of businesses here in Hastings Old Town,” says Robbie Clark, owner of Mame’s Place, and Chair of the Old Town Traders Association. “Here’s to a great summer of trading!”
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