Words Sophie Sims
Photography Richard Oxford

“The only people who could look in are fishermen,” Jack Hughes suggests while gazing out of the generous bay windows at the southerly edge of his apartment. “And I doubt they’d be able to see that far.”

It’s true – the apartment sits seemingly level with the water, an intimate and all-encompassing backdrop to day-to-day life. When up close to the glazing, more comes into view: below are passersby strolling along the promenade; to the right, the Stirling Prize-winning Hastings Pier; and on the left – in the very distance, visible on a clear day – the chalky faces of the Seven Sisters cliffs.

Jack is the founder and head of the architectural practice, West St Studio, and he moved into the apartment in 2019. It wasn’t quite as idyllic then as it is now. “I spent six months sleeping on the floor in the living room. I do think it’s important to live in a space before you renovate it, it helps you understand how the light falls, and how you want to live in a home.”

When he moved in, the apartment was an amalgamation of its past lives. A palimpsest of sorts, Moreton Court began its life, Jack believes, in the 1860s, “probably as a really grand one-off house, built around the time when the railways started, letting people holiday on the coast.” Before its division into flats in the 1960s, it was a hotel. Many of its characterful mid-century features remain in the communal area, which Jack describes as “a little bit Wes Anderson.”

While Jack worked with a local contractor (“a great joiner called Joe Jackson”), he also did a substantial amount of work himself. It was in this process of stripping that the full extent of the apartment was revealed – period plasterwork and all. “I got a chisel out and started chipping – it was so satisfying, seeing that all the original panelling was there. It was months of hard work – it felt like there were 10 layers of paint on everything. But when you start, you can’t really stop.”

During his restorative efforts, Jack realised that some of the original features were in less than perfect condition. But rather than replace, he undertook a sort of creative ‘splicing’, filling in the gaps and allowing the historic parts of the building to breathe.

“You can see in the hallway that, when they made the building into flats, they just cut the corners of the architraves off. I tried to preserve as much of the original space as possible. In my work, I try not to make grand statements: it’s more about treating things simply and with respect. So, things like the chipped cornice – it’s never been repaired. I don’t think precision really suits an old building like this.”

Jack has added newer additions to the apartment with a formidable deftness, taking inspiration in colour and material from the seaside setting. Sable-hued bespoke ply joinery adds a wealth of storage space, particularly in the living area – where it takes the form of a multi-purpose, playfully irregular dining table and adjacent waist-height unit, which doubles as an extended kitchen preparation space.

“I wanted it to feel like it was a sideboard as much as an extension of the kitchen, which is why having the open bookshelf and cupboards at the back was important. It holds my books now, but used to have a hi-fi system on it.

“The dining table was the last thing to go in. I did originally have a rectangular table, but it wasted so much space. When the delivery man dropped off this table, he looked at it and was just like: ‘I have no idea what this is’. We spent a whole day screwing it together, and it fits perfectly against the curved wall. You can get eight people around the table now and, if two guests don’t like each other, you can tactfully place them at opposite ends.”

A different chord is struck in the WC and adjacent shower room, which initially posed a head-scratcher for Jack. “The biggest question was always how they were going to be configured to make the best use of space. When you're working on small projects, it always feels like the thing to do is to try and maximise the living space. I've never really understood people that have incredibly grand bathrooms and then no dining space. Integrating colourful curved elements, like the coral paint on the outside walls, adds something a bit more sculptural.”

Jack leaves Moreton Court to return to London, where he lived for 10 years before his half-decade-long seaside foray. It’s clear that he will miss it, and that leaving this apartment, and the view, will be a sad farewell. “As I was making coffee at 6am this morning, I was looking out my windows at the boundless view. Actually, I’ve never shut the blinds in five years of being here. I've never wanted to.”