Window Gallery

The Window Gallery in Hassocks is one of those places you'd walk straight past if you weren't looking for it - which is rather the point. It's a working artist space where the front window does all the talking, displaying rotating contemporary work that changes regularly throughout the year. What you're looking at is actual art on display in a real window, not some twee shop front arrangement. Local and visiting artists use this modest but genuinely clever setup to reach people who'd never normally step foot in a gallery.

It works best for art enthusiasts and anyone who appreciates experimental approaches to showing work. If you're in Hassocks for a proper walking holiday - and there's plenty of that to be done around here with the South Downs on your doorstep - this is the kind of thing that makes a market town feel alive rather than sleepy. Worth a ten-minute detour between coffee and lunch, especially if you're staying at Southdown Way or Blackberry Wood, both less than two miles away.

The beauty of Window Gallery is that you can engage with it entirely on your own terms. Stand outside and look for as long as you like, or don't - there's no obligation, no admission charge to feel guilty about, no gift shop trying to flog you expensive postcards. Just art in a window, the way it used to be shown before galleries became corporate leisure experiences. Check ahead for opening times and what's currently on display, as both vary depending on the artist in residence.