Take a look inside latest Hastings offices to open in former Debenhams building

Freedom Works has renovated the fifth floor and done a complete refit.

Office space on the lower floors was first opened by Freedom Works in September 2022.

The company runs several co-working spaces throughout Sussex and the south coast.

Once described as the Hastings Palace, the former Debenhams building housed the department store for many years.

William Plummer and George Roddis started out as drapers in Hastings and in 1871 they had the store at 3 Robertson Street.

Freedom Works has kept the name - The Palace Workspace to create the employment space for local businesses and freelancers to work from.

Rose Rotchell, cluster manager, said: “We have renovated the fifth floor of the abandoned Debenhams building and done a complete fit out for this space.

“What we are doing going forward is focusing on building these collaborative communities. We have had members here for about a year now. They have stayed with us and there is now 70 per cent occupancy of the space.”

Rose said on the fifth floor there is space for hot desking, private office space and meeting rooms.

Rose added: “Anything that’s about getting people in together and collaborating is our main focus. With our existing members we have seen a lot of footfall from new people coming in using the space.”

Hannah Russell, community manager, said: “A lot of people tend to find this space as kind of connected to the Debenhams building and store. It goes way further back. I will be investigating and researching more into the vast history that actually is in this building and moving it up into the fifth floor, creating it as a space.”

Freedom Works, opened its first office in Worthing in September 2016.

When it opened its first offices in 2022 in the former Debenhams building, it said it had witnessed a huge uplift in businesses and people wanting flexible offices and collaborative workspace along the coast.

It said at the time that it invested more than £170,000 into the fit-out, on top of a Town Fund deal grant of £112,000 to create the space, bringing the project to a £300,000 investment into the town centre.