A Peep into the Future

Post- war Hastings needs to brace itself for change in this short film from the Town Planning Department

Sidney Little's film uses stop-frame animation to illustrate his design for re-modelling Hastings town centre's Memorial area. The film shows proposed alterations that would streamline traffic flow through the junction. A pair of hands removes a part of the model to reveal a double-decked network of flyovers, underground shopping areas and a new bus station. The model also shows the necessary re-alignment of two major streets converging at the Memorial junction.

George Coleman, who was an employee of Hasting's Town Planning Department, related how Sidney Little, his immediate boss, drafted George and several other staff members to assist with the production. The large model was housed in Bank Buildings and small scale wooden cars and buses were placed in the 'streets', each of which was alloted to a member of the planning staff. Ivan Barnett, who had positioned his camera above the model, would say "go" at which point each assistant would move all the cars and buses in their section by a tiny amount. When Ivan shouted 'back" the assistants moved away from the model and the picture was taken. This continued until the film was completed.