The iconic Cafe at Birling Gap on top of the start of the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs run by the National Trust will be demolished this month (October) before it falls into the sea. It now sits only 5 metres from the cliff edge with more rock falls imiinient.
In January 2023, sections of Birling Gap beach were closed following a cliff fall and last year rope fences were installed at cliff edges across East Sussex to keep people away from cliff edges.
The cafe building is now closed and a cafe has been reinstated with the same building but 10 meres further back which had once been a bar and hotel before the National Trust took the site over and put a shop in its place. While an iconic site visited by thousands of British abd oversea vistiors every year the general policy of the Environemtal Agency is to allow erosion of the land around the British Isles coastline. Work will also start this year to take down the front section of the centre, formerly the café, and the rest of the west wing. Across the car park from the cafe stand the remaining four of the original 8 coastguard cottages built in 1878 with the last cottage being demolished in 2014 and its neighbouring cottage in 2002 due to the encroaching sea undercutting the chalk cliffs beneath it.