PLACE — Brighton & Newhaven Fish Sales
Where the Catch Still Lands First: Shoreham Fish Market
Fish, landed nearby and sold without distance. A working port where freshness is measured in hours, not days.
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Edit No.08 — The British Seaside, Reconsidered
Shoreham Fish Market. East Beach Café, Littlehampton. The Rose, Deal. Hwyl Sauna, Pembrokeshire.
This edit follows the line of the water — from a working port in West Sussex where fish is landed and sold the same day, to a sculptural steel building on the Littlehampton shoreline, to a measured hotel in Deal that reflects its town rather than trying to redefine it, to a sauna on the Pembrokeshire coast where the sea is the cold plunge.
Brighton & Newhaven Fish Sales at Shoreham Port operates without distance — fish landed overnight, sold by morning, with a directness that most food retail has long moved away from. East Beach Café, designed by Thomas Heatherwick, treats the British coastline not as nostalgia but as a setting for architectural seriousness — a building shaped by the environment it sits within. The Rose in Deal does what few seaside hotels manage: it fits into its town rather than standing apart from it, with restrained design and seasonal food that feel continuous with the place itself. Hwyl Sauna on the Pembrokeshire coast reduces the experience to its simplest form — heat, then the sea, then again — with no separation between the process and the environment.
Four places shaped by the coastline. Each earning its place by working with it rather than against it.
In this edit
PLACE — East Beach Café
Architecture on the Shore: East Beach Café
A sculptural form in weathered steel on the Littlehampton shoreline — designed by Thomas Heatherwick and shaped more like land art than a restaurant.
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EXPERIENCE — Hwyl Sauna
Heat and Cold: Hwyl Sauna
Set along the Pembrokeshire coastline, Hwyl Sauna is built around a simple sequence: heat, then cold. The sea becomes part of the process.
Read →Each article in this edit is experienced first-hand and written independently. All Vitae Lifestyle articles are archived under Lifestyle and can be read out of sequence.
Questions about this edit
What is covered in Edit No.08?
Edit No.08 covers four first-hand experiences along the British coastline: Brighton & Newhaven Fish Sales at Shoreham Port in West Sussex; East Beach Café in Littlehampton, designed by Thomas Heatherwick; The Rose hotel in Deal, Kent; and Hwyl Sauna on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales.
Where is East Beach Café located?
East Beach Café is located on the seafront in Littlehampton, West Sussex — directly on the shoreline at the eastern end of the beach. The building was designed by Thomas Heatherwick Studio and completed in 2007. It is one of the most architecturally significant structures on the south coast of England and is often cited as an example of contemporary British coastal architecture.
Where is Hwyl Sauna located?
Hwyl Sauna is located on the Pembrokeshire coastline in Wales. It is a coastal sauna experience built around a simple heat-and-cold sequence, using the sea directly as the cold plunge rather than a pool or ice bath. Bookings are made in advance through the Hwyl website.