Eastbourne's seafront is one of the best-preserved Victorian seaside fronts in England. The promenade runs for about 3 miles, backed by large white hotels and the celebrated carpet gardens — elaborately maintained flower beds that have been a feature of the seafront since the 1870s. The Victorian bandstand at the western end of the promenade hosts summer concerts. The beach is shingle rather than sand, as is typical of this stretch of the Sussex coast, with the characteristic sound of waves dragging the pebbles back and forth.
The seafront has the comfortable, slightly unhurried quality of a town that has not felt the need to reinvent itself. The hotels have survived more or less intact, the gardens are tended, and the ice cream kiosks do a steady trade. In the summer months the promenade fills with families, day-trippers from London, and older visitors for whom Eastbourne is a familiar institution. Out of season it is quieter and in some ways more interesting: the town reverts to itself, and the long views down the coast toward Beachy Head are unobstructed.