A five star hotel, where many years prior to World War 1, Albert Sandler presented the popular "wireless" programme "Grand Hotel" from the Palm Court, has had many famous guests in its long history. Lady Antonia Fraser and her husband Harold Pinter have often stayed there in the past, to get away from it all and write without distraction. Also, Debussy wrote "La Mer" whilst staying at the hotel. A book was recently published on the history of the hotel, "The Grand Hotel" by Peter Pugh.

On the outskirts of Willingdon was where George Orwell wrote "Animal Farm", first published in 1945. As a child he went to school at Eastbourne College, and was a member of the Willingdon Literary Society. He was a regular visitor to the hotel and during one stay there wrote the novel. He named the farm in his book after the hotel, hence "Chalk Farm".

Other famous visitors to Eastbourne include Reverend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) who spent his summers writing in Lushington Road. The house is now a dentist's surgery.

During the night the town was hit by freak high winds, buildings were displaced and many residents lost garden equipment, sheds, windows, chimneys, garage doors and some the roof of their home. Vehicles were overturned, cable and phone lines torn down. By the morning the scene was of chaos and devastation, many roads were impassable and people were requested not to leave their homes unless journeys were absolutely necessary.

One of the most obvious results of the storm was the tree loss in Eastbourne, thought to exceed 2,000 on Borough Council land and highways. The initial assessment from the Borough Council was based on work to make safe public land; no estimate was made of the loss of trees on private land. The extent of damage was difficult to estimate due to the unknown condition of remaining standing trees and the loss of mature trees in woodland areas remote from the road.

Many restoration projects have been started by townspeople, both individuals and organised groups, including a fund set up by the Mayor of Eastbourne, to replenish supplies. Hopefully future generations will benefit from these efforts.