Quaint seaside town cottage visited by Charles Dickens opposite historic pub has asking price slashed by almost £300,000
ONE of the oldest inhabited homes in Britain has seen its asking price slashed by almost £300,000.
The Grade II listed property in East Sussex that is currently for sale has parts that date back to the 12th century.
It had been once rented by Victorian Augustus Egg during several summers in the 1830s, whose close friend novelist Charles Dickens would frequently visit to escape London.
The property in Eastbourne is called Pilgrims and displays a blue plaque on the front to mark the visits by the Great Expectations writer.
Pilgrims was previously listed for sale during the pandemic, when interest rates were lower and there was a huge demand for homes outside of busy cities.
At that time, the property had an eye-watering price tag of £900,000.
However, it failed to find a buyer and has now gone back on the market with a massive price reduction.
It is currently listed for £625,000, which is 30.4 per cent lower than two years ago.
The property is on Borough Lane, just off the high street in Eastbourne.
Egg and Dickens would reportedly take part in amateur performances at the Lamb Inn pub opposite the property, along with the artist Holman Hunt.
The pub is still open to this day.
When the town was just known as Bourne, the only properties on the high street were the pub and St Mary’s church, along with Pilgrims on the corner.
The period property extends across a total of 183.9 square meters, the equivalent of 1,979.3 square feet.
Inside, it boasts a host of original features, including exposed timber beams and leaded light windows.
There is also an inglenook fireplace in the living room and a vaulted ceiling in the main bedroom.
The snug and inner hallway are believed to have been added as part of an extension in 1783, while the garden room was added to the property by the current owners.
It is a much loved home by the current owners, who have lived there for almost four decades.
The property has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as a cellar.
There are good transport links nearby with four train stations all within four miles, including Eastbourne train station which is less than a mile from the property.
There are also four schools within a mile, including Gildredge House and The Cavendish School.
The average price of a property sold in Eastbourne in the past 12 months is £311,724.
It is just shy of the £328,848 average for the country as a whole, according to property website Zoopla.
It means that despite the reduction, Pilgrims still has a price tag that is twice the average for the area and almost twice as much as the UK average.
The property is in a popular area, with plenty of amenities nearby.
These include three golf courses, along with bowling and one of the largest sailing marinas on the south coast.
There is also the world class opera at nearby Glyndebourne and channel ferries are from Newhaven.
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