The Beachy Head Experience is open daily to 1 November, then Friday to Sunday from 6 November. Adults £10, under 18s £6, and what the ticket includes.
The visitor centre at the top of Beachy Head is open again. The Beachy Head Experience opened on Saturday 24 October in the building that used to be the Beachy Head Story, on Beachy Head Road next to the Beachy Head pub.
It is open every day until Sunday 1 November. From Friday 6 November it opens on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only, 10am to 4pm. Those times are on the attraction’s admission page.
The centre is run by Animazing C.I.C., a not-for-profit community interest company that has made family exhibitions in Eastbourne, Hailsham and Hellingly since 2015. It runs the building under a lease from Eastbourne Borough Council, which announced the opening last week. The council said the project took 18 months. It is Animazing’s first permanent venue, according to the company’s own about page.
Prices and opening times
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| Adult | £10.00 |
| Children and young people, 3 to 17 | £6.00 |
| Under 3s | Free |
| Carers, with an i-go card or similar | Free |
| Shop and tourist information point | Free to enter |
- To Sunday 1 November: open every day, 10am to 4pm.
- From Friday 6 November: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 10am to 4pm.
- Last admission to the exhibition is 3pm.
- Come back within six months and you pay half price.
- Contactless payment is preferred.
Groups are asked to contact the centre for a price. Tickets are sold on the day and online.
What the ticket includes
The permanent exhibition is called Lighthouses, Landscapes and Legends. The council’s announcement lists what is inside:
- a four-metre computer-generated model showing how the chalk cliffs formed
- the story of the two lighthouses, Beachy Head and Belle Tout
- the Cold War sites under the headland
- morse code and semaphore flags to send messages across the room
- a video telescope trained on the view
- a way to measure the height of the cliff using your own height as the unit
- a green screen studio that films you “flying” over Beachy Head, with the video free to take home
Children get a free activity pack. This week’s half-term games, including Lighthouse Quoits and a Long Man bean bag throw, are included in the price, according to the What’s On page.
The trails app
Each ticket also unlocks three days of the Beachy Head Trails app. The code comes from the visitor centre, so pick it up before you leave. The council says there are eight trails across the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Dean, Meads and the seafront. The trails page lists them with distances, including:
| Trail | Distance | Time | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Landmarks Trail, round the top of Beachy Head | 1 mile | 1 hour | Easy |
| The Adventure of the Retired Detective, East Dean | 1 mile | 1 hour | Easy |
| A Trail of Two Lighthouses, on the South Downs Way | 4 miles | 2 hours | Moderate |
| Peak Puzzle Trail | 1 mile | 1 hour | Moderate |
| The Hidden History Trail | 6 miles | 2 hours | Moderate |
The Meads Benchmark Trail, a 2-mile hunt for Ordnance Survey benchmarks in Meads, is marked “coming soon”. East Dean is the village just west of Beachy Head, in Wealden district.
Getting there
- By car: the main Beachy Head car park is next door. The centre’s visiting page gives council parking charges from £1.50 for an hour to £5.90 for the day, payable on RingGo, location 46366.
- By bus: the Coaster 13X stops outside. In winter it runs hourly on Sundays only, the centre says, so check the timetable before relying on it.
- On foot: the South Downs Way climbs from Holywell, at the western end of the seafront, to the top of Beachy Head.
What it means for you
It gives the headland an indoor attraction to go with the walk again. When we checked in August, the centre’s own site was promising a summer 2026 opening. It has arrived in time for the last days of half term, and then settles into a weekend pattern for the winter.
If you are going this week, the daily opening ends on Sunday. After that, plan around Friday to Sunday. A family of two adults and two children pays £32, and the half-price return within six months makes a second visit £16.
The centre will also keep a base for the Downland Ranger. The council says Animazing will work with the Beachy Head Ambassadors and the chaplaincy team. Community groups can hire its 34 square metre room, the Darby Room, for £15 an hour, with seats for 30 and a projector.
Animazing says future temporary exhibitions will include Thunderbirds and TV puppets, stop motion animation, the Cold War and Sussex on screen. It is also marking 100 years since the 1926 Act of Parliament that let Eastbourne buy the Downland Estate, with events running to 2029.
For more to do this week, see our half-term guide and what’s on in Eastbourne this month.
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