Garden Lighting in Hastings Old Town

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The Old Town is the most constrained part of the borough to light, and the most rewarding. Gardens are small, walled and often overlooked on three sides, and a large proportion of the building stock is listed or sits inside the Old Town conservation area.

Schemes here are usually a handful of fittings doing precise work: a wash down a flint or brick wall, a couple of recessed step lights on the climb to the upper terrace, and warm light on one plant that carries the whole courtyard.

What Hastings Old Town gardens need

• Courtyards, not lawns

  Most plots are a few metres deep. The right answer is almost always grazing light across texture — flint, brick, render — rather than uplighting into a small canopy, which just glares.

• Listed fabric

  Fixing a fitting to a listed wall alters the building. We look at freestanding and ground-level options first, and check the consent position with Hastings Borough Council before quoting rather than after.

• Nowhere to bury cable

  Paved courtyards mean surface routes. We run cable in shadow lines, along wall bases and under coping, in UV-stable sheathing, so it disappears in daylight as well as at night.

Hastings Old Town questions

Can you light a listed property in Hastings Old Town?

Often, yes, but the approach changes. Because fixing a light to a listed building alters its fabric, we prioritise ground-mounted and freestanding fittings and confirm whether listed building consent is needed with Hastings Borough Council before any quote is issued.

How many lights does a small Old Town courtyard need?

Usually between four and eight. Small walled spaces are easy to over-light. A wall wash, two or three step lights and one accent on planting is normally enough, and looks far better than a fitting every metre.

Will the lighting disturb neighbours in a terrace?

It shouldn't. In tightly overlooked courtyards we use narrow beam angles, shielded fittings and low output, and we aim light down or across surfaces rather than up into the sightline of the houses behind.

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