On the corner of Wilmington square is an “anonymous” pillar box (anonymous because it does not carry the VR cipher). You are told this in the local History leaflets but you won’t be told that it is on this spot that George Meek was granted a rare act of charity from one of our “elite” “gentlemen” visitors.
George Meek was one of Eastbourne’s Bath-Chair men. These men had a hard life. They did not own the bath chair but instead rented it. (More details under “George Meek” – find in “People”).
On one Sunday at the turn of the century George Meek had been waiting on the corner of Wilmington Square for twelve hours from 8am onwards without a single fare. He was just moving off home when a gentleman hailed him and not as it turned out for the hire of his chair but merely to ask him for a light. “Very busy?” he asked Meek whereupon the latter told him how he had spent the day. “That’s hard lines, here’s half a crown”, and on learning that Meek had a family he added, “Here’s another five shillings.”
Credit: Bill Coxall and Clive Griggs in their biography of George Meek.
Bear in mind here that George Meek had to pay rent for the bath chair. No fare equalled debt to the rentier classes.