Hastings - shall we move there?

[migratingsouth]

DP has been offered a job in Hastings (we live in London and want to move out).

Does anyone know anything about the place?

We've visited and I loved the Old Town, the coffee shops in the centre of town and being by the sea. I'd love us to be near to DP's work as they work strange / unsocial hours in his industry, and it would be really nice if he could easily pop home during the day. Also I'm very keen on the fact we could actually afford a house there.

However I'm aware that Hastings / St Leonards has a bad reputation for having social problems (as has the bit of London we're moving from, mind you!)

We two pre-school DCs.

If it was just for me, I could happily live in a place labelled "socially deprived" - I have done all my life. However is this fair on our DCs? We're leaving London precisely because we feel it's not fair to bring the DCs up in our bit of it (and can't afford the "nice" bits). Would a move to Hastings be out of the frying pan, into the fire?

Can anyone tell me, what are Hastings / St Leonards like really?

I haven't RTFT but in case no-one else has posted this, this is a really useful map. It doesn't tell the full story, of course, and won't tell you if it's a lovely community for instance or a beautiful view, but it's a place to start, and another piece of information.

vis.oobrien.com/booth/

Just to add - I grew up in one of the dark green areas and would never live there again, and I now live in a reddish area and love it