Much-loved centre in Hastings Old Town officially reopened by Lord Lieutenant for East Sussex

Yesterday (Thursday, December 1), the Lord Lieutenant for East Sussex, Andrew Blackman, reopened the Isabel Blackman Centre in Winding Street as part of a launch event.

The reopening is a culmination of a massive community fundraising campaign to get the facility reopened.

The centre was previously owned by East Sussex County Council and closed on March 31, 2019, despite campaigns and several petitions calling for it to remain open. Hundreds of people signed a petition as part of a campaign to give the public a chance to buy the centre.

Following this, the centre moved into the hands of a charity called Isabel Blackman Centre – in Perpetuity (IBC-IP).

The new centre, now run by Age UK East Sussex, is now a new leisure, health, and wellbeing centre.

A spokesperson for the charity said: “The centre has been designed to suit a wider age group with support for everyone over 50. There are daily recreational classes from art and crafts to IT training, hobbies, music, dance and more.”

The new centre now has its own gym and exercise studio specifically for the over 50s and offers a range of exercise and wellbeing classes.

Richard Scott-Clark, Age UK East Sussex operations director, said: “The new gym and studio is something really unique. When we talked to people, they said there were no facilities like this locally and they often found larger gyms intimidating. Our new gym and studio are specifically for the over 50s and we want to support people at all levels of fitness to have somewhere to go and enjoy exercise.”

At the Bourne end of the building the lobby area has been transformed into a community shop and Information point.

Hastings mayor, Cllr James Bacon, said: “The reopening of the Isabel Blackman Centre is such an enormous success for older people and everyone in the Old Town. It’s thanks to everyone’s passion that we have managed to save this important building. Now, as we need these facilities more than ever, its heart-warming to see the Isabel Blackman Centre come back to life once again and continue to support the Old Town and wider Hastings communities.”

The centre is open Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm. For more information, call 01424 235535.