As I crossed the road at Holborn at the weekend, I was nearly trampled to death by a horse.

I had waited for the green anthropomorph, looked both ways, and begun to cross when, around halfway across, I became aware of a horse coming straight at me. I don’t know whether drivers of horse-drawn traps are required to observe traffic regulations, but on this evidence I would say that you can’t rely on it.

After a moment of frozen panic, with less than a metre to spare, I chose a side and stepped out of the way. It was apparently the correct direction, and I avoided an embarrassingly Victorian way to die.

The rest of the week was better.

We took a short break in Eastbourne in what is definitely the off season. There’s more to the town than I expected, and even some significant public realm improvement works pedestrianising an area near the sea front.

It’s easy to get there from London, and the town is compact enough to get around on foot.

The obvious decrepitude of the pier gave me some concern, but it hasn’t fallen down yet, and it hosts impressive murmurations at dusk. Wave upon wave of groups of starlings appear from over the town and settle on the pier to roost for the night.

A beach at sunset. Three people are standing in the shallows in the distance.

The beach at Eastbourne at sunset

On Wednesday we walked from Eastbourne to Exceat past the Seven Sisters. I had naïvely assumed that the initial steep climb from the town up to the cliffs would be most of the elevation, but no, there’s a lot of up and down at some extreme gradients.

We started off in rain, but with the hope that it would clear up. It did, until it started hailing near Belle Tout. I learned that hail makes you wetter faster than rain, but looked forward to stopping at the café by the lighthouse.

However, the café no longer exists, a consequence of the coastal erosion that threatens the whole area. The lighthouse was moved 17 m inland 25 years ago, but as coastal erosion averages 60–70 cm per annum, they must be running out of slack around now.

A lighthouse atop white cliffs. The path to the lighthouse has been cut off where the middle section has fallen into the sea.

Disappearing cliffs by Belle Tout lighthouse. That used to be a road

The café at Birling Gap, run by the National Trust, was still there. Their hot spiced apple juice was very welcome. (I should make some.)

It’s a spectacular walk and I’d recommend it even in winter. Perhaps especially in winter. It must be very busy in the summer, but at this time of year you can enjoy it without crowds and even take some photos that don’t have people in them.

We spent the next morning at the Towner art gallery. The free exhibition, of the life and work of Eric Ravilious and his somewhat overshadowed but clearly equally (if not more) talented wife Tirzah Garwood, is comprehensive and fascinating.

We paid the very reasonable £9 for the Turner exhibition; it’s full of works by Turner, his contemporaries, and those who inspired him and whom he inspired. Some of them were every bit as good as Turner.

Standing by the Ruins by Dana Awartani, in a small room off the gift shop, is moving and poignant. It uses pressed mud bricks, textiles, and drawings to express the culural loss of buildings destroyed in Palestine and Syria.

Places in Eastbourne that we enjoyed:

  • The Bohemian, a recently refurbished pub with a wide range of drinks, games, and absolutely beautiful interior décor.
  • The Dew Drop Inn, a cosy pub in the centre.
  • Malayalam, a Keralan restaurant on Terminus Road near the pier. Delicious food with a panoply of vegan options.
  • The Good Grub, a cute little vegan bistrot whose food reminded me of Le Potager du Marais in Paris.
  • The Art House café/pottery studio serving plenty of vegan dishes and some of the most delicious and interesting salads I’ve eaten.

Back in London we also visited Nigerian Modernism at the Tate Modern. It’s a large and varied show that covers the colonial and post-independence periods. It’s spacious, well-curated, and I recommend it.

YOKIMONO Market on Sunday was the usual amount of chaos. The changing room doubles as the bin store. The “stage” is a strip of floor at the edge of a narrow entrance space. It’s cramped and crowded.

The first set went fine. In the second set, I messed up playing guitar on Tinsagu nu hana. It’s a very repetitive piece to play, and if you’re not paying close attention it’s easy to lose track. One person sang the wrong words, the sound engineer chose the same moment to adjust my microphone stand, instantly doubling the volume of the guitar, and I lost my place for the next verse and a half. I’m not sure all that many people noticed, but I did!

This week’s links: