Originally published in the Guardian, Saturday 5 June 2010

Thanks to my new travelling companion, Sat Nav Sean the Irishman, finding Black Rock House is a breeze – and I can park right outside on this wide avenue of smart Victorian brick residences in an elevated position above Hastings town centre. Hello – bit of building work going on here, or maybe someone’s doing the garden? There are some freshly dug beds and a very new-looking terrace out front. Won’t be using that just yet – there’s a stiff easterly. I’m racing up those steps to the front door.

Tracey-Anne, who co-owns Black Rock House with partner Lesley, opens the door wide. You know how some places make you relax instantly? Well this is one of them. Calling the interior “seasidey” would do it a disservice. Shown into the sitting room, I find restful seascape shades, duck-egg, dove grey, and sink into a sofa by a small log fire while Tracey-Anne goes to fix tea.

A perfectly laid tray appears in moments. Soon after, Lesley appears bearing a plate of tiny little indulgences – perfect piped peaks of pistachio and rosewater meringue, triangles of rich chocolate tart and wafer-thin hearts of shortbread. “In another life, I would have been a patissier,” she says, smiling. Talk about a B&B having a secret weapon.

By my second cup of tea I’ve recovered from the Friday night traffic. The duo opened the B&B in summer 2008. This spring, a fifth (ground-floor) room has been added. The other four (one is a suite, apparently, and popular with families, though they only take over-fives) are on the first floor, which is where Tracey-Anne is taking me.

Inside the door, the first thing I encounter is a beautifully composed silver tray on which tea and coffee things are arranged, plus a cellophane bag, tied with a bow, of little biscuits in the shape of fish and alphabet letters – more of Lesley’s goodies I’ll be bound. I could list all the little touches that make this a supremely comfortable room, but the amount of care lavished on the tray is an accurate indication that the same attention to detail is evident elsewhere. Guest info – bound in toffee-coloured leather – is all about what the owners of Black Rock can, rather than can’t, do to make your stay more comfortable.

I eat out – fish of course. New restaurant Webbe’s Rock-a-Nore is somewhat too brightly lit but its fish comes straight from the Hastings and Rye fishing fleet.

My bed is without doubt the most comfortable this year (due, in part to a mattress topper about a foot thick). Spring sunshine streams into the dining room downstairs. Black Rock House is part of the Sussex Breakfast scheme, an initiative that guarantees local sourcing of produce. It kicks off with homemade toasted granola, fruit compote or fruit salad from a buffet, but what I really like are the cooked options. Hastings smoked haddock (really good stuff) with poached eggs, Black Rock griddle pancakes with a choice of sliced banana and warm toffee sauce or grilled bacon and maple syrup, and grilled halloumi with thyme-infused tomatoes on potato bread (which is what I choose and it is fantastic).

Chatting over the freshly squeezed OJ, I am not surprised to learn that Tracey-Anne has worked in the hotel business. This guesthouse has all the comforts of a hotel – without any of the disadvantages.

10 Stanley Road
(01424 438448,
black-rock-hastings.co.uk.

Two upstairs doubles have sea views; two upstairs rear rooms and ground floor room overlook gardens. B&B £120 at weekends, including parking permit.