A new sports bar has opened on the ground floor of the former Owens building in Hastings, offering customers snooker and pool, darts, shuffleboard, and an arcade area.

Opened by Hastings local Tom Cosens, the new Player Bar aims to bring a “family-friendly” entertainment offering to the East Sussex town.

“I felt that the town needed a sports entertainment venue,” Cosens told the Sussex Express. “We’re just trying to get Hastings back together again, trying to make it that family-orientated place, which I think the town’s missing.”

The bar officially opened on 5 September, after Cosens spent 16 months securing a new licence for the premises following the expiration of the existing licence granted to Owens.

“I’ve lived in Hastings all my life, and there’s always been something, and the last few years there hasn’t been anything. I want it to be somewhere that a mixture of people can go.”