Up until the 18th century the idea of living near the sea was considered unhealthy. It was the Prince Regent who changed this conception by transforming neighbouring Brighton from a fishing village to a popular health resort and crowning it with the flamboyant Royal Pavilion.

In 1801, Eastbourne consisted of only 243 houses and a population of 1700 inhabitants living in four hamlets surrounded by farmland. It was the attraction of salt water cures and the linking of Eastbourne to the railway in 1849, that prompted the growth of the town.

By the mid-l9th century Eastbourne emerged from being a scattered community of hamlets; they consisted of Bourne (Old Town), Southbourne (around Grove Road), Meads and the Sea Houses (Marine Parade). And under the direction of the two main land-owning families, the Gilberts with 956 acres and the Cavendishes, 2,625 acres, the town started to take shape as a fashionable town.

The main promoter of the town's development was William Cavendish, the Earl of Burlington. Indeed, at one stage there were plans to rename the town as Burlington. but when in 1858, he inherited the title of the seventh Duke of Devonshire and became one of the wealthiest men in England, he dropped that idea and sought only to create an elite community that was 'built by gentlemen for gentlemen'

It was the 7th Duke of Devonshire, who appointed the brilliant architect Henry Currey to lay out a plan for the town. The Duke sent Currey on a grand tour of Europe intent on creating a town to rival any in Britain.

The result was the varied architecture, classical on the sea front, gothic in the Meads and a street pattern that was well ahead of its time with features like the 80 foot wide boulevard in Devonshire Place.

In 1850, Terminus Road was laid over what was formerly a muddy path to the sea. A Vestry Room was built at the station end of Grove Road, moving the Local Board's meeting place from the Old Town into the new Town centre. And in the following year 1851, the Gas Company was formed with their gas works on a site adjoining the railway station.

Soon hotels, mansions and elegant houses spread themselves along the wide avenues and the population increased from 3,433 in 1851. to 22, 014 in 1881. The railway was connected to the town in 1849, opening up the area to tourism.

By 1883, Eastbourne's population reached and surpassed the necessary number 22.000 and the town's local board successfully applied for a Charter of Incorporation; the Borough of Eastbourne was born.

Until then the affairs of the town had been debated by the Local Board in the new Vestry Room in Grove Road, but this was now too small to house the new Mayor and Corporation. A site known as Stockbank was purchased from the Duke for £3, 000 and work commenced on the present Town Hall, which was completed in 1886.

The town was made a County Council in 1911, a status it enjoyed until the reorganisation of local government in 1974.