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Hastings Commons: ‘Why I spent £85k to help fix housing crisis’

Work at Rock House began in October 2014 with the help of volunteers and a local builder.

“We had a report saying it was going to cost £1.9m to renovate the whole building,” Jess recalls. “So we threw it away and got on with turning the first two floors into workspaces for local businesses that we knew wanted to rent them.”

The building was partially reopened a few months later in 2015 and a third floor was given to an art school to use for a year at no charge.

“They started bringing the building to life and, you know, being ambassadors for it. So more and more people were coming to see it and proposing ideas about how to use the empty space,” says Jess. “It was almost like free marketing but they were also shaping the future of it.”

The next step was to turn two floors into six flats, using a loan from the founders of the Big Issue, that would be rented out at the affordable rate.

Jess credits the builder, Chris Dodwell, for having the skill and patience to work with the building as it was because the community group couldn’t afford an architect.

In March 2016 the first residential tenants moved in and the group was awarded more grants to finish converting the remaining floors into various workspaces, commercial units and common areas. The renovation was completely finished in 2019.


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