Eastbourne is a resort town on England's southeast coast. On the seafront are Victorian hotels, the 19th-century Eastbourne Pier and a 1930's bandstand. Towner Art Gallery includes modern British works. Nearby, Redoubt Fortress, built during the Napoleonic Wars, has a military museum. Southwest along the coast, in South Downs National Park, are the tall chalk cliffs of Beachy Head and its striped 1902 lighthouse. Eastbourne grew as a fashionable resort due to the Duke of Devonshire. In 1859, he wanted to develop the town and appointed architect Henry Currey to design a street plan – after sending him to Europe for inspiration. The resulting architectural mix is typically Victorian, with a tinge of the Med, and gives Eastbourne its faded glamour ambience. However, many water sports fans have discovered the potential of Eastbourne's magnificent bay, and for tennis fans the annual international tennis tournament provides a superb warm-up for Wimbledon.
