Lost Buildings of Worthing

A Historic Town and its People

Demolition and redevelopment over the past seventy-five years have done great damage to Worthing, and relatively few of the town’s historic buildings survive. Lost Buildings of Worthing is a lavishly illustrated record of the most interesting and important of these vanished buildings. It is also a rich and detailed history – and social history – of Worthing, with numerous fascinating narratives and anecdotes about people associated with the buildings described. In the first section, ‘Lost on the Seafront’, we travel from east to west along the parade, visiting over twenty buildings, including the Haven, where Oscar Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest in 1894; Warne’s, the famous hotel where Emperor Haile Selassie stayed after he was exiled from Ethiopia; and the Marine Hotel, where Benjamin Disraeli ‘sojourned for a time’ during a period when he was in opposition. The second section, ‘Lost in the Town Centre’, features buildings and streets that once stood in the historic heart of Worthing – from the slum dwellings of Cook’s Row to the fine old houses of the High Street – while the third, ‘Lost on the Periphery’, focuses on the ancient estates of Charmandean and Offington. Illustrated with over two hundred engravings and photographs – together with six extracts from the Ordnance Survey map of 1859 – Lost Buildings of Worthing is an indispensable historical account of the largest town in West Sussex.