Literature Salvington in Worthing was the birthplace of philosopher and scholar
John Selden in 1584. Two of
Percy Bysshe Shelley's earliest works were printed in Worthing, including
The Necessity of Atheism in 1811, which resulted in Shelley's expulsion from Oxford University and falling out with his father. Shelley's
grandfather built
Castle Goring and his
father was the first chairman of what became
Worthing Council.
Oscar Wilde wrote
The Importance of Being Earnest while staying in the town in the summer of 1894; its main character Jack/Ernest Worthing is named after it. In the 1960s, playwright
Harold Pinter lived wrote
The Homecoming at his home in Ambrose Place. Other literary figures to have lived in the town include
W.E. Henley,
Dorothy Richardson,
Edward Knoblock,
Beatrice Hastings,
Maureen Duffy,
Vivien Alcock,
John Oxenham Other former cinemas include the Rivoli (1924–1960), the 2,000-capacity Plaza (1933–1968) and the 1,600-capacity Odeon (1934–1986). The Connaught Screen 2 cinema (formerly the Ritz, and before that Connaught Hall) was established in 1995. Many films and television programmes have been filmed using Worthing as the backdrop including:
Pinter's
The Birthday Party (1968), directed by
William Friedkin (best known for directing
The French Connection in 1971 and
The Exorcist in 1973),
Black Mirror (2023),
Dance with a Stranger (1985),
Stan & Ollie (2018),
My Policeman (2022),
Vindication Swim (2024) and
Wicked Little Letters (2024) as well as the television drama series
Cuffs (2015) and
The Death of Bunny Munro (2025).
Music Artists from Worthing include
Alma Cogan,
Royal Blood and
The Ordinary Boys. During the 1960s, the Worthing Pier Pavilion and Assembly Hall hosted major rock acts, including The Who, The Kinks, The Hollies, The Zombies, The Byrds and Zoot Money. Local bands supported these acts. The venue was a key stop for touring bands during the 60s boom. Worthing was home in the late 1960s to the
Worthing Workshop, a group of artists and musicians who included
Leo Sayer,
Brian James of
The Damned,
Billy Idol and
Steamhammer, whose guitarist,
Martin Quittenton, went on to co-write
Rod Stewart's UK number one hits "
You Wear It Well" and "
Maggie May". For three days in 1970 a field on the outskirts of Worthing was the site of the
Phun City music festival, the UK's first large-scale free music festival and organised by two former Worthing residents,
UK underground musician and author
Mick Farren and Gez Cox. In the late 1980s and early 1990s
Sterns Nightclub was a major centre for
rave culture in the UK and Worthing continues to have a notable electronic music scene. Music venues include the Assembly Hall, the
Pavilion Theatre,
The Venue, the Factory Live, Jungle and the Cellar Arts Club. The Assembly Hall is home to the
Worthing Symphony Orchestra, the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra
Howarth of London, the UK's largest manufacturer of professional standard oboes are based in Worthing.
Theatre As of 2019 Worthing has three council-owned theatres: the
Art Deco Connaught Theatre (formerly called Picturdrome), the
Baroque Pavilion Theatre Theatre has been performed in Worthing since 1796. Thomas Trotter, the early promoter and manager at the town's temporary venues, was asked to open a permanent theatre in 1807; his Theatre Royal opened on 7 July of that year and operated until 1855. The building survived until 1870. The 1,000-capacity New Theatre Royal in Bath Place, run by Carl Adolf Seebold for several years, lasted from 1897 until 1929. Built in 1908 as the town's museum and library, it is expected to undergo a major redevelopment in 2020. Alfred Cortis, the first mayor of Worthing, and the international philanthropist
Andrew Carnegie funded the construction. In the visual arts, painter
Copley Fielding lived at 5 Park Crescent in the mid-18th century. The town has a famous work by sculptor
Elisabeth Frink. Uniquely in England, Desert Quartet (1990), Frink's penultimate sculpture, was given Grade II* listing in 2007, less than 30 years from its creation. It may be seen on the building opposite Liverpool Gardens. Hand-painted by Gary Bevans over more than five years,
English Martyrs' Catholic Church in Goring has the world's only known reproduction of
Michelangelo's
Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Buildings and architecture , an
Art Deco masterpiece, 2018 was built by
John Rebecca in the 1820s. Few structures in central Worthing predate the 19th century, these being a few buildings on
Worthing High Street that are survivals from the early fishing hamlet of Worthing. There are some older buildings in the former villages outside the town centre. For example, parts of
St Mary's Church in Broadwater date to the Saxon period and West Tarring has several buildings from the medieval and Tudor periods, including St Andrew's Church and the Archbishop's Palace, which date from the 13th century. There are 213
listed buildings in the borough of Worthing. Three of these—
Castle Goring,
St Mary's Church at Broadwater and the Archbishop's Palace at West Tarring—are classified at Grade I, which is used for buildings "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important".
Worthing Pier,
Park Crescent,
Beach House and several churches are also listed. Since 1896, when Warwick House was demolished, many historic buildings have been lost and others altered. The town's first and most distinguished theatre, the Theatre Royal, and the adjacent Omega Cottage (the home of the theatre's first manager) were lost in 1970 when the Guildbourne Centre was built; Warne's Hotel and the Royal Sea House burnt down; the early
bath-houses which were vital to Worthing's success as a fashionable resort were all demolished in the 20th century; Broadwater's ancient
rectory rotted away after it fell out of use in 1924;
Flint is the other predominant structural material: its local abundance has ensured its frequent use. The combination of flint and red brick is characteristic of Worthing. In particular, walls built alongside streets or to mark out boundaries were almost always built of flint with brick dressings, especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Boat porches are a unique architectural feature of Worthing. These structures surround the entrance doors of some early 19th-century houses, and take the form of a
stuccoed porch with an
ogee-headed roof which resembles the bottom of a boat. Historians have speculated that the cottages, examples of which are in Albert Place, Warwick Place and elsewhere, may have been built by local fishermen who used their boats as a basis for the design. The town has a small number of residential
high-rise buildings including
Bayside Vista at , completed in 2022, and Manor Lea at , built in 1967. The
Splashpoint Leisure Centre won a
World Architecture Festival award in 2013.
Folklore The Midsummer Tree, an
oak, stands near Broadwater Green and is said to be around 300 years old. Until the 19th century, it was believed that on
Midsummer's Eve skeletons would rise from the tree and dance around it until dawn, when they would sink back into the ground. The legend was first recorded by folklorist Charlotte Latham in 1868. Since 2006, when the oak was saved from development, meetings have been held on Midsummers Eve there. It was once believed that monsters known as
knuckers lived in bottomless ponds called
knuckerholes. There were several knuckerholes in Sussex, including one in Worthing by Ham Bridge (on the present Ham Road), close to
East Worthing railway station and
Teville Stream. According to legend, a tunnel several miles long led from the now-demolished medieval
Offington Hall to the Neolithic flint mines and Iron Age hill fort at Cissbury. It was said to be sealed, and there was treasure at the far end; the owner of the Hall "had offered half the money to anyone who would clear out the subterranean passage and several persons had begun digging, but all had been driven back by large snakes springing at them with open mouths and angry hisses".
Open spaces . The town has five miles of beach and large areas of open space on the South Downs including the
Worthing Downland Estate,
Cissbury Ring and
Highdown Hill. The town also contains a number of parks and gardens, many laid out in the
Victorian and
Edwardian eras. • Beach House Green •
Beach House Park – named after nearby Beach House, the park is home to one of the world's most well-known venues for the sport of
bowls. The park is also home to a possibly unique memorial to
homing pigeons that served in the
Second World War. • Broadwater Green – Broadwater's 'village green'. • Brooklands Park • Denton Gardens – at the southern end of Denton Gardens is an 18-hole Crazy Golf course. • Field Place – tennis courts, lawn bowls, putting and conference facilities. Can be found north of
Worthing Leisure Centre. • Goring Green •
Highdown Gardens – a garden at the foot of the South Downs containing the National Plant Collection of the plant collection of Sir Frederick Stern containing rare plants collected from east Asia. • Homefield Park – formerly known as the 'People's Park' it was once home to
Worthing F.C. also includes a concrete skatepark and tennis courts. • Liverpool Gardens – overlooking the graceful
Georgian Liverpool Terrace, the gardens and terrace are named after
Lord Liverpool. Overlooking the park from the east are four bronze heads known as
Desert Quartet, sculpted by
Dame Elisabeth Frink. • Marine Gardens • Tarring Park • Palatine Park • Promenade Waterwise Garden • Steyne Gardens – which includes a sunken garden re-landscaped in 2007 with a fountain of the
Ancient Greek sea god,
Triton, by sculptor
William Bloye. • Victoria Park – was donated by the Heene Estate to the poor of Worthing in commemoration of the death of
Queen Victoria. (Taken from title deeds to property owned in St. Matthews Road.) The land was previously used for
market gardening and once sported a paddling pool which was closed due to foot infections in the children. Victoria Park is used by clubs and casual footballers. • West Park – has a running track and basketball court and lies next to Worthing Leisure Centre.
Annual events The Worthing Festival is an annual multi-arts festival that began in 2023. Worthing Artists' Open Houses is an annual festival of arts and crafts. In the last two weeks each July, open-air concerts take place in the town centre with a fairground along the town's promenade. Also taking place in July,
Worthing Pride has been celebrated in the town since 2018. From 2008 to 2015, Worthing was the home to the
International Birdman competition. In January, the ancient custom of
wassailing takes place in Tarring to bless the apple trees. A flaming torchlit procession takes place down Tarring High Street culminating in hundreds of people gathering around an apple tree to shout, chant and sing to drive away evil spirits. The apple trees are toasted with
wassail,
apple cider and
apple cake, followed by fireworks. On May Day, a procession and dancing takes place in Worthing town centre, culminating in the crowning of the
May Queen. ==Media==