A picturesque seaside townhouse visited by Charles Dickens opposite a historic pub has had its asking price slashed by almost £300,000

ONE of Britain’s oldest inhabited homes has had its asking price slashed by almost £300,000.

The Grade II listed property in East Sussex which is currently for sale has parts dating back to the 12^th century.

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It had been rented by the Victorian Augustus Egg for several summers in the 1830s, to whom close friend novelist Charles Dickens visited frequently to escape from London.

The Eastbourne property is called Pilgrims and displays a blue plaque on the facade to mark the Great Expectations writer’s visits.

Pilgrims was previously listed for sale during the pandemic, when interest rates were lower and there was huge demand for homes outside busy cities.

At that time the property had a sky-high price tag of £900,000.

However, it failed to find a buyer and has now returned to the market with a massive price reduction.

It is currently listed at £625,000, 30.4 per cent less than two years ago.

The property is on Borough Lane, just off the main street in Eastbourne.

Egg and Dickens are said to have taken part in amateur performances at the Lamb Inn pub opposite the property, alongside the artist Holman Hunt.

The pub is still open to this day.

When the town was known as Bourne, the only properties on the main street were the pub and St Mary’s Church, and the Pilgrims on the corner.

The period property spans a total of 183.9 square meters, the equivalent of 1,979.3 square feet.

Inside, it houses many original decorations featuresincluding exposed wooden beams and bright leaded windows.

There is also an inglenook fireplace in the living room and a vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom.

It is believed that the cozy interior hallway was added as part of an extension in 1783, while the garden room was added to the property by the current owners.

It is a home much loved by the current owners, who have lived there for almost four decades.

The property has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as a cellar.

There are good transport links nearby with four train stations all within a four mile radius, including Eastbourne station which is less than a mile from the property.

There are also four schools within a one mile radius, including Gildredge House and The Cavendish School.

The average price of a property sold in Eastbourne in the last 12 months is £311,724.

This is just below the average of £328,848 for the whole country, according to property website Zoopla.

This means that despite the reduction, Pilgrims Price is still twice the region’s average and almost twice the UK average.

The property is in a popular area, with many amenities nearby.

These include three golf courses, a bowling alley and one of the largest marinas on the south coast.

There is also the world-class Opera House at nearby Glyndebourne, and ferries depart from Newhaven.

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