Sainsbury's Concrete Mural

A 1970s Sainsbury's supermarket in Bexhill-on-Sea sounds like the last place you'd expect to find proper art, but the concrete mural wrapped around its exterior is genuinely worth a look. It's a surviving example of brutalist commercial architecture - the kind of thing town planners were throwing up across Britain when modernism felt like the future rather than a relic.

The mural itself is abstract, geometric, all those angles and planes that look better the longer you stare at them. There's something oddly moving about finding this kind of public art on the side of a supermarket. It wasn't created as some precious gallery piece; it was just meant to be there while people nipped in for their shopping. That's what makes it interesting.

You won't spend hours here - it's the kind of spot you photograph, think about for five minutes, then move on. History buffs and architecture types will get more from it than casual visitors. The mural tells you something about how we thought about public space and design in the seventies, before everything got a bit beige.

If you're staying at one of the nearby parks like Combe Haven or Park Holidays UK, it's a quick detour into Bexhill proper. Free to view, obviously - you're just standing outside a working supermarket. Best visited when you're already in town rather than as a dedicated trip. Pop down, clock the mural, grab a coffee somewhere. That's the way to do it.