Gerda's Visit to Hastings - March, 2003

I almost had to cancel my little excursion due to some nasty food poisoning on the day I arrived in London, but decided I just had to make this visit a priority. I took the train from Charing Cross Station and arrived around 11 am at the Hastings train station. Definitely not the one from the series! I walked to the Tourist Info and got a bunch of maps and brochures. There was no info about Foyle's War available. The guy at the information desk just said that they had filmed last year around Old Town and the pier, but he didn't know anything else. I think I knew a lot more on that topic than he did.

I walked to Old Town (about one mile from the train station), down High Street, and up Swan Terrace by St. Clements Church. You can see the steeple every time Sam drives up to Foyle's front door. The church is lovely. There's a walking passage behind it connecting High Street and Croft Road (Foyle's street, which is called Steep Lane in the series). It is so romantic looking with a beautiful cemetery garden and stonewall on one side, and the quaint white facades of a row of clapboard houses brightened by flowerboxes on the other. I was thinking it was just the right sort of setting to use somewhere in the series. I just had to take a snapshot of it. Then, the other day, while watching the scene (again) where Sam and Foyle walk to church together on the National Day of Prayer, I noticed that the little connecting passage they stroll along is the one I had photographed!

At the bottom of Swan Terrace is a memorial garden where the Swan Inn used to be. It was completely destroyed in one of the few serious WW II German air raids on Hastings. Of course that reminded me of the bombing scene at The Bell in The German Woman ...

I walked up Croft Street and stopped in front of # 31. It looked amazingly like in the series, except for a few minor details. I fast-forwarded through all 4 episodes today to compare... There is a sign painted to the left of the front door that says "St. Just" in nice antique lettering. They covered that up for the filming. You can tell it is there in one scene in Eagle Day though. Also, the security alarm display is just out of the frame by the upper window above the door. Obviously they had to omit that one. A lot of the other houses had those. The windows on the right of the door all seemed to be boarded up somehow. And when I watched the series today I noticed that you can see that in one scene where Foyle stands on his front steps.

I just stood there grinning like an idiot! (I know -- hard to believe ...!) I had to wait until someone walked by so they could take a pic for me. Finally a woman showed up. In my excitement I showed her my camera's on/off button instead (I can only repeat in my defense that I was thrilled to be there) so it took several failed attempts until I got my picture. At that point a young couple had walked up and waited patiently until I had my shot of me on his front steps. I walked over to the woman holding my camera to thank her again and apologize for confusing her (it was Foyle's house after all ...!!). As I turned around the woman (the one walking up with the man) had gone into # 31 and the man was just about to! I smiled somewhat apologetically for having blocked their front door and explained that I had seen the TV show. The guy was very nice about it and said something about going up into the back which I didn't quite catch. I don't think he lived there. I think they were just visiting. In retrospect, I SHOULD of course have invited myself in (I bet that's what Fiona would have managed...) but I'm a bit shy in that respect. And I was so stunned that they walked in his door that I couldn't get my act together quickly enough to do the Miranda Richardson thing from "Enchanted April" ... Next time ...

I was a bit amazed that the street seemed smaller than on TV. They do a great job shooting just from the right angles. The modern looking lamppost is shown only a tiny bit on TV. The house is at a fairly tight curve with a tiny lane down some steps on the opposite side of the curve. There doesn't seem to be much room to set up all the lights and camera equipment but they obviously managed quite well. I think they shot from down the steps to get a better view. Also, the yellow stripes on the roadside were visible again when I was there. I read that they cover them all up temporarily for filming. This was clearly the highlight of my Hastings tour. I debated setting up camp across the street from #31 but decided that stalking wasn't my thing after all. So I wandered around Old Town some more. I bet I saw more filming locations but couldn't be sure. I wish I could have had a portable DVD player along to compare!



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