What's going for it? I was thinking of saving Hastings' Old Town all for myself, gobbling it up like an ice-cream sundae when I'd reached the seaside stage of my life. But all right, I'll share it. If I must. It is pretty much Tom's Ideal Place, with all the things I like squished into a fold on the sea between the imaginatively titled East Hill and West Hill: faint melancholy; a smashing higgledy crush of architecture – tudor, seaside stucco, you name it; the amazing Electric cinema that shows The Creature From The Black Lagoon; magnificent tea shops; magnificent (independent) shops; two funiculars; fishmongers and fishermen galore; a miniature railway! Plus a few special things of its own, such as the spooky, surreal, monolithic net huts on the beach, the Jerwood art gallery hard on the shingle next door, an annual Pirate Day and the home of Aleister Crowley. And it's not a squillion pounds to live there. On second thoughts, it's mine, all mine.

The case against If only it wasn't saddled to Hastings itself. But at least that has kept house prices low (by south-east standards). The Bourne (A259) rather splits the old town up with traffic. Don't mention the Jerwood to any fishermen.

Well connected? Sluggish. Several trains an hour to London stations (75-130 minutes); hourly to Ashford International (42 minutes) and Brighton (70 minutes). Road: an hour to Brighton, and east to the Eurotunnel at Folkestone; two hours to London slowly up the A21.

Schools Primaries: All Saints CofE is "satisfactory" with some "outstanding" features, says Ofsted, Castledown "satisfactory" but "quickly improving", while Sacred Heart Catholic is "outstanding". Secondaries: under its former incarnation as Hillcrest, Hastings Academy was "satisfactory" and "rapidly improving".

Hang out at… The Stag Inn on All Saints Street: cute.

Where to buy Keep between the hills. Plummest are the pretty, historic town houses and cottages of the High and All Saints Streets, plus the alleys off; but higher up the hills, say towards Harold Road and Clive Vale, you get the views.

Market values Four- or five-bed town houses, £300,000-£500,000. Semis, £160,000-£390,000. Cottages and terraces, £130,000-£300,000. Flats, £75,000-£150,000.

Bargain of the week Rather lovely, listed four-bed Georgian-fronted Tudor town house, with a walled garden, right on the High Street; £289,950, with John Bray & Sons.

From the streets

Jane Ellis "A great community spirit – it feels more like a village than a town; the country market on Fridays; good independent food shops; the lovely Shimizu Flowers; plus fish straight off the boats."

Alastair Hendy "It's Shoreditch-on-Sea, albeit with an extraordinary pagan spectacle every May, the Jack In The Green festival."

Trevor Hopper "The view to and from the West Hill that stands above the Old Town is great. As is the new Jerwood Gallery."

• Live in Old Town, Hastings? Join the debate below

Do you live in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex? Do you have a favourite haunt or pet hate? If so, please write by Tuesday 22 May to lets.move@theguardian.com

• This article was amended on 21 May 2012. In the original, words were mistakenly attributed to Alastair Hendy that were actually from another reader. This has been corrected.