Saint Ann’s Cottage on Castle Hill Road, Hastings, has a lot to recommend it. It has five double bedrooms. It is Grade II listed. It has been newly refurbished. It has sea views. Oh, and it has a cave in the garden.
It’s a substantial cave too, measuring 184 square feet, according to the floorplan. Cut straight into the sandstone cliffs behind the property, it spans the entire width of the back garden.
There are two arched entrances to the cave, both flanked by Doric columns. Inside, there are three distinct, interlinked spaces. The largest, at the front, is circular chamber, adjoined by a smaller space to the left, which also leads onto the garden.
An archway to the rear leads to a long, cavernous space, with a natural stone column for support and a further alcove to the right. On some of the walls, carvings are visible, including a decorative border to one of the archways, a botanical pattern and diamond-shaped tiling.
“It’s a natural cave,” says the property’s vendor, who wished to remain anonymous. “To our knowledge, it’s been there hundreds of years.”
The cave has an electricity supply and has been fitted with lighting. But otherwise, with its uneven stone floors and rough hewn walls, this cave is very much au naturel.
“It would be great for a dining or entertaining area,” says the vendor. “It’s got lights, power. It could be whatever you want to make it, depending on how creative you want to be.”
Hastings, which sits on sandstone, is home to an expansive cave network which, according to local legend, was once used by smugglers. St Clement’s Caves, the town’s most famous, previously served as a home, hospital, air-raid shelter and ballroom. It is now a popular tourist attraction.
In Hastings and across parts of the south coast, houses featuring caves do occasionally come up for sale. The vendor, who is the director of a development, investment and trading company, worked on a house one door down which was listed for sale last year. This boasted a small internal cave, accessed from the main living space.
Another property, listed in 2021, featured a dramatic cave bathroom with a vaulted ceiling and centuries-old drawings and faces engraved into its walls.
Saint Ann’s Cottage has been listed for £600,000 with Rush, Witt & Wilson. Are caves a selling point? “Absolutely,” says the vendor. “[This house] has had a lot of interest.”
The property, cave aside, is a handsome double-fronted house with curved bow windows. It was built in the late 18th century, and was briefly home to the Scottish author and poet George MacDonald, who is commemorated with a blue plaque outside.
Born in Aberdeenshire, MacDonald came to Hastings for health reasons and lived at Saint Ann’s Cottage for a short period of time around 1860. He and his family left for London —his house on Albert Street, Camden, also has a blue plaque— but returned to Hastings a decade later.
Inside, Saint Ann’s Cottage covers 1,644 square feet over three floors, with a kitchen, living room and dining room on the ground level and five double bedrooms on the two floors above. From the top, there are views of the sea.
The property was purchased for £350,000 in March this year, according to Land Registry records, and was sympathetically refurbished by the vendor, preserving period features like the wooden floorboards, fireplaces and sash windows.
“It would suit someone that has some creative flair, or someone that appreciates the nature of the house, being such a grand and unique period property,” he says. “It’s steeped in history… They’re not building them like this anymore. It’s a very unique opportunity.”
The property is being sold by Liam Nixon at Rush , Witt & Wilson.
