Worthing - WikiHQ

Districts

The naming of parts of the town reflect its growth in its formative years of the 19th century. Central parts of the town are made up of the former townships of Worthing and West Worthing, which merged in 1890 when the town gained borough status. This area comprises the town centre, East Worthing and West Worthing. To the north and west of this area are the former villages of Worthing which have old roots but only became urbanised in the 20th century. These districts sometimes share their names – although not necessarily boundaries – with local electoral wards and include the former parishes of Broadwater, Durrington, Goring and (West) Tarring, as well as Findon Valley, which was formerly part of the parish of Findon. Other areas within these parishes include High Salvington, Offington and Salvington.

Demography

Population change

According to the Office for National Statistics, Worthing's population increased to an estimated 110,570 in 2019. Worthing is the second most densely populated local authority area in East and West Sussex, with a population density in 2011 of 33.83 people per hectare.

{| class="wikitable" style="border:none;"

|+Historic and projected population growth in Worthing since 1801

! Year || colspan="2"|Population

| rowspan="13" style="border:none;padding:1em;"|

! Year || colspan="2"|Population

| 1801 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1921 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1811 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1931 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1821 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1939 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1831 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1951 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1841 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1961 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1851 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1971 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1861 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1981 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1871 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1991 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1881 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 2001 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1891 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 2011 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1901 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 2021 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 1911 || style="text-align:right;"|

| 2031 || style="text-align:right;"|

Source: A Vision of Britain Through Time,

Office for National Statistics

identified as a sexual orientation other than heterosexual, compared with an average in England and Wales of 3.2%. The figure for under-35s in the borough of Worthing rose to 7.9% compared with an England and Wales average of 6.2%.

Ethnicity

According to the UK Government's 2021 census, 91.2% of the population was White (85.1% White British, 0.8% White Irish, 0.1% Gypsy/Irish Traveller, 0.2% Roma, 5.2% Other White), 2.5% of mixed ancestry (0.9% White and Black Caribbean, 0.5% White and Black African, 0.9% White and Asian, 0.7% Other Mixed), 4.0% Asian (1.0% Indian, 0.2% Pakistani, 0.7% Bangladeshi, 0.5% Chinese, 1.5% Other Asian), 1.2% Black (0.8% African, 0.2% Caribbean, 0.1% Other Black), 0.2% Arab and 0.8% of other ethnic heritage.

The town also has some notable communities from overseas. At the 2021 census 0.79% (864 people) were born in Poland, 0.70% of its population (778 people) were born in India, 0.68% (753 people) were born in the Philippines and 0.65% (724 people) were born in Romania.

Age

Worthing has a younger population than the other three districts of coastal West Sussex, albeit older than the South East average. In 2006, 26.7% of the population were between 25 and 44 years old, which is a higher proportion compared to the other districts in the coastal West Sussex area.

Religion

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"

! rowspan="2" |Religion

! colspan="2" |2001

! colspan="2" |2011

! colspan="2" | 2021

!Number

!Holds religious beliefs

!72,477

!74.2

!64,326

!61.4

!53,428

!47.9

|26x26px Christian

| align="right" |70,387

| align="right" |72.1

| align="right" |60,817

| align="right" |58.1

| align="right" |48,897

| align="right" |43.9

|20x20px Buddhist

| align="right" |330

| align="right" |0.3

| align="right" |600

| align="right" |0.6

| align="right" |704

| align="right" |0.6

|21x21px Hindu

| align="right" |214

| align="right" |0.2

| align="right" |546

| align="right" |0.5

| align="right" |739

| align="right" |0.7

|23x23px Jewish

| align="right" |256

| align="right" |0.3

| align="right" |227

| align="right" |0.2

| align="right" |274

| align="right" |0.2

|20x20px Islam

| align="right" |733

| align="right" |0.8

| align="right" |1,348

| align="right" |1.3

| align="right" |1,912

| align="right" |1.7

|24x24px Sikh

| align="right" |106

| align="right" |0.1

| align="right" |122

| align="right" |0.1

| align="right" |124

| align="right" |0.1

|Other religion

| align="right" |451

| align="right" |0.5

| align="right" |666

| align="right" |0.6

| align="right" |778

| align="right" |0.7

!No religion

! align="right" |16,575

! align="right" |17.0

! align="right" |31,577

! align="right" |30.2

! align="right" |50,895

! align="right" |45.7

!Religion not stated

! align="right" |8,516

! align="right" |8.7

! align="right" |8,737

! align="right" |8.3

! align="right" |7,013

! align="right" |6.3

!Total population

! align="right" |97,568

! align="right" |100.0

! align="right" |104,640

! align="right" |100.0

! align="right" |111,336

! align="right" |100.0

thumb|The Church of St Andrew the Apostle (Church of England)

thumb|right|alt=Three-quarter view of a stone church with a buttressed tower in the foreground. This has small battlements and a spire. The nave roof, below which are four small, evenly spaced windows, is visible, but its aisle and an attached porch are obscured by a bush. There are gravestones and a table tomb in the foreground.|[[St Andrew's Church, West Tarring|St Andrew's is the parish church of West Tarring.]]

thumb|right|alt=A brown-brick, flat-roofed, warehouse-style building. The lower half of its façade has been painted cream and decorated with arch-shaped window and door surrounds attached to the walls. On the first floor there are three two-pane windows and one single window. The side wall is mostly blank, with some small windows.|The Masjid Assalam mosque serves the town's Sunni Muslim population.

More people in Worthing identify as Christian than any other religion (43.9% in 2021) and the borough has about 50 active Christian places of worship. Worthing's Churches Together organisation encourages ecumenical work and links between the town's churches.

Worthing's first Anglican church, St Paul's, was built in 1812; previously, worshippers had to travel to the ancient parish church of Broadwater. Residential growth in the 19th century led to several other Anglican churches opening in the town centre: Christ Church was started in 1840 and survived a closure threat in 2006; Arthur Blomfield's St Andrew's Church brought the controversial "High Church" form of worship to the town in the 1880s—its "Worthing Madonna" icon was particularly contentious; and Holy Trinity church opened at the same time but with less dispute.

Other Anglican churches were built in the 20th century to serve new residential areas such as High Salvington and Maybridge; and the ancient villages which were absorbed into Worthing Borough between 1890 and 1929 each had their own church: Broadwater's had Saxon origins, St Mary's at Goring-by-Sea was Norman (although it was rebuilt in 1837), St Andrew's at West Tarring was 13th century, and St Botolph's at Heene and St Symphorian's at Durrington were rebuilt from medieval ruins. All of the borough's churches are in the Rural Deanery of Worthing and the Diocese of Chichester.

The first Roman Catholic church in Worthing opened in 1864; the centrally located St Mary of the Angels Church has since been joined by others at East Worthing, Goring-by-Sea and High Salvington. All are in Worthing Deanery in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton. Protestant Nonconformism has a long history in Worthing: the town's first place of worship was an Independent chapel. Methodists, Baptists, the United Reformed Church and Evangelical Christian groups each have several churches in the borough, and other denominations represented include Christadelphians, Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and Plymouth Brethren. A Coptic Orthodox church is also present in the town. The Salvation Army have been established for more than a century, but their arrival in Worthing prompted large-scale riots involving a group called the Skeleton Army. These continued intermittently for several years in the 1880s. Other Christian organisations include Worthing Churches Homeless Projects and Street Pastors.

In 2021, 1.7% of the population of Worthing were Muslim. Since 1994 the Muslim community has had a mosque at the Worthing Islamic Cultural Centre, also known as Worthing Masjid (Worthing Mosque) or Masjid Assalam (Mosque of Peace, or Mosque of Allah) which follows the Sunni tradition and holds prayer, education, and funeral services for the local community.

There are also small communities of Buddhists (0.6% in 2021) in Worthing, including a community of Triratna Buddhists. There is a small Jewish community (0.2% in 2021) and the town had a synagogue in the 1930s. In 2011, 0.7% of the population were Hindu, 0.1% were Sikh and 0.7% followed another religion. A small community of the Baháʼí Faith practises in Worthing. 45.7% claimed no religious affiliation, a figure significantly higher than the average for England and Wales of 37.2%, and 6.3% did not state their religion.

Education

thumb|The Learning Resource Centre at [[Northbrook College's main campus in West Durrington]]

Worthing has 22 primary schools, six secondary schools, one primary and secondary special school, two independent schools, one sixth form college and one college of higher and further education.

Founded by 1890 as the Worthing School of Art and Science, Northbrook College's main campus is located on the outskirts of Worthing at West Durrington, where its creative arts degrees are validated by the University of the Arts London. Northbrook's Broadwater campus is set to close in 2025 and courses are to be consolidated at West Durrington and at the Broadwater campus of the town's sixth form college, Worthing College. Northbrook and Worthing Colleges share a principal and are both part of the Chichester College Group.

West Sussex County Council provides six state secondary schools: Bohunt School Worthing in Broadwater is a coeducational academy school, Durrington High School and St Andrews High School and Worthing High School are all coeducational, with St Andrew's taking in girls from 2021. Davison High School in East Worthing is a girls' school. St Oscar Romero Catholic School in Goring is a Catholic School. Our Lady of Sion School in the town centre is a private school for children aged 3–18.

Economy and regeneration

{|class="wikitable floatright"

|+Labour profile

||Total employee jobs||43,800 ||

||Full-time||28,000||63.9%

||Part-time||15,800||36.1%

||Manufacturing||3,300||7.5%

||Construction||1,100||2.4%

||Services||38,900||88.7%

|style="left-padding: 20pt"|Distribution, hotels & restaurants||9,600||22.0%

|style="left-padding: 20pt"|Transport & communications||1,400||3.3%

|style="left-padding: 20pt"|Finance, IT, other business activities||9,600||22.0%

|style="left-padding: 20pt"|Public admin, education & health||16,200||36.9%

|style="left-padding: 20pt"|Other services||2,000||4.6%

|style="left-padding: 20pt"|Tourism-related||3,000||7.0%

Worthing's economy is dominated by the service industry, particularly financial services. Major employers include GSK, LEMO electronics, Rayner Lenses, HM Revenue & Customs, the Environment Agency and Southern Water.

In October 2009, GlaxoSmithKline confirmed that 250 employees in Worthing would lose their jobs at the factory, which makes the antibiotics co-amoxiclav (Augmentin) and amoxicillin (Amoxin) and hundreds of other products. , there were approximately 43,000 jobs in the borough.

Although Worthing was voted the most profitable town in Britain for three consecutive years at the end of the 1990s, the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2009 found that Worthing residents' mean pre-tax pay is only £452 per week, compared to £487 for West Sussex and £535 for South East England as a whole. The 2012 UK Town and City Index from Santander UK ranked Worthing as the second highest town or city in the UK for connectivity and ranked fifth in the UK overall out of 74 towns and cities. focused on improving the town centre and seafront. A new £150 million development is proposed for Teville Gate, between Worthing railway station and the A24 at the northern approach to the town centre. It is expected to include two residential towers, a multiplex cinema, hotel and conference and exhibition centre. The developers are expected to apply for planning permission in the summer of 2010. Redevelopment is planned for the Grafton Street car park area; and the town's major undercover shopping centre, the Guildbourne Centre, may be rebuilt entirely and extended to Union Place, covering the site of the town's former police station.

thumb|left| Worthing Victorian promenade shelter at dusk, July 2018

In the longer term, the area around Worthing's museum, art gallery, library and town hall—collectively described as the "Worthing Cultural and Civic Hub"—is to be revamped to provide extra facilities and new housing. In 2009, Worthing Borough Council applied for a £5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to redevelop and enlarge the museum. A new £16 million municipal swimming pool, Splash Point Leisure Centre, has been designed by Stirling Prize-winning architects Wilkinson Eyre; it was opened by Paralympian Ellie Simmonds in June 2013. It has been proposed that Montague Place is pedestrianised to improve the link between the town centre and the seafront.

Completed regeneration projects include the reopening of the Dome Cinema in 2007 after major investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and a £5.5 million mixed-use development on the site of a former hotel near Teville Gate.

Transport

thumb|right|A [[Southern (train operating company)|Southern train arrives at Worthing railway station.]]

A turnpike was opened in 1803 to connect Worthing with London, and similar toll roads were built later in the 19th century to connect nearby villages. Stagecoach traffic grew rapidly until 1845, when the opening of a railway line from Brighton brought about an immediate decline. The former turnpike is now the A24, a primary route which runs northwards to London via Horsham and connects Worthing with the M25 motorway. Two east–west routes run through the borough: the A27 trunk road runs to Brighton in the east, and to Chichester, Portsmouth and the M27 motorway in the west. The A259 follows a coastal route between Hampshire and Kent.

Most local and long-distance buses are operated by Stagecoach South which has its origins in Southdown Motor Services—founded in 1915 with one route to Pulborough. Stagecoach in the South Downs operates several routes around the town and to Midhurst, Brighton and Portsmouth. The most frequent service, between Lancing and Durrington, was branded PULSE in 2006. Worthing-based Compass Travel have routes to Angmering, Chichester, Henfield and Lancing; and other companies serve Horsham, Crawley, Brighton and intermediate destinations. National Express coaches run between London's Victoria Coach Station and Marine Parade. During the 1920s and 1930s, a fleet of up to 15 converted Shelvoke & Drewry dustbin lorries—the Worthing Tramocars—operated local bus services alongside more conventional vehicles.

The borough has five railway stations: East Worthing, Worthing, West Worthing, Durrington-on-Sea and Goring-by-Sea. All are on the West Coastway Line and are managed and operated by Govia Thameslink Railway. Worthing opened on 24 November 1845 as a temporary terminus of the line from Brighton, which was extended to Chichester the following year and electrified in the 1930s. Regular services run to destinations such as London, Gatwick Airport, Brighton, Littlehampton and Portsmouth.

Shoreham Airport is about east of Worthing. The nearest international airport is Gatwick, about to the northeast. The district is divided into two neighbourhood policing teams—North and South—for operational purposes. The police station is in Chatsworth Road. The West Downs division's headquarters is at Centenary House in Durrington. Worthing's fire station has been in Broadwater since 1962. The borough had been in charge of fire protection since 1891, after several decades in which volunteers provided the service. A fire station was built on Worthing High Street in 1908; it was demolished after the move to Broadwater. The Worthing and Adur District Team, part of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, employs 60 full-time and 18 retained firefighters.

Worthing Hospital is administered by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. The 500-bed facility on Lyndhurst Road was founded in 1881 as an 18-bed infirmary. It replaced older hospitals on Ann Street and Chapel Road. and a 38-bed private hospital in the Grade II-listed Goring Hall.

Gas was manufactured in Worthing for nearly 100 years until 1931, but Scotia Gas Networks now supply the town through their Southern Gas Networks division. Electricity generation took place locally between 1901 and 1961; Southern Water, who have been based in Durrington since 1989, have controlled Worthing's water supply, drainage and sewerage since 1974. The town's first waterworks was built in 1852. Drainage and sewage disposal was poorly developed in the 19th century, but a fatal typhoid outbreak in 1893 prompted investment in sewage works and better pipes.

Voluntary and community groups

There are a number of voluntary and community groups active in the town ranging from small volunteer-led groups to large well established charities. There is a Council for Voluntary Service and a Volunteer Centre funded by the local authority to support voluntary action. In 2003-4 registered charities in Worthing indicated a combined income of £56 million in the submitted accounts to the Charity Commission. The Place Survey conducted in all local authority districts by central government in 2009 found that up to 24,000 people in Worthing described themselves as giving volunteer time in the community.

Culture

Literature

thumb|right|Harold Pinter's former house in Ambrose Place

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

thumb|left|[[Worthing Pier, an Art Deco masterpiece, 2018]]

thumb|left|Regency Townouses in Ambrose Place, Worthing

thumb|right|[[Beach House, Worthing|Beach House was built by John Rebecca in the 1820s.]]

thumb|right|Boat porches are found only in Worthing.

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.

thumb|left|The dramatic Art Deco-inspired Warnes building on Marine Parade, Worthing

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

thumb|Lake at Brooklands Park.

thumb|right|alt=sunlit park in winter|[[Beach House Park.]]

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

thumb|right|The offices of the Worthing Herald and Worthing Advertiser opened in 1991.

In the early 19th century, Worthing was served by newspapers with a wider geographical circulation, such as the Brighton Gazette, Brighton Herald, Sussex Daily News, Sussex Weekly Advertiser and West Sussex Gazette. Weekly or monthly publications such as the Worthing Visitors' List and Advertising Sheet (notorious for its condemnation of people who had displeased its owner, Owen Breads), the Worthing Monthly Record & District Chronicle and the Worthing Intelligencer provided some local coverage from the middle of the century onwards; but the town's first regular local newspaper was the Worthing Gazette, introduced in 1883.

In 1921 its scope was extended to include Littlehampton, and it was renamed accordingly.

Worthing is served by the BBC South television studios based in Southampton, BBC South East from Tunbridge Wells, and by the ITV franchise Meridian Broadcasting, also with studios in Southampton. Television signals come from the Rowridge or Whitehawk Hill transmitters.

More Radio Worthing is Worthing's local commercial radio station. Launched in 2003 it broadcasts from the Guildbourne Centre on 107.7FM. Heart South, a Global Radio-owned commercial station, also covers Worthing. BBC Local Radio coverage is provided by BBC Radio Sussex.

Sport

Worthing's of coastline provide for watersport, especially catamaran racing, windsurfing and kitesurfing. The town has held a regatta for rowing since at least 1859.

The South Downs is commonly used for hiking and mountain-biking, with around 22 trail-heads within the borough. Both of Worthing's golf clubs, including Worthing Golf Club are on the Downs. The Three Forts Marathon is a ultramarathon from Broadwater to the three Iron Age hill forts of Cissbury Ring, Chanctonbury Ring and Devil's Dyke.

Worthing F.C., nicknamed "The Rebels" or "The Mackerel Men", formed in 1886 is the town's main football club. The men's team play in the National League South, having won the 2021—22 Isthmian League Premier Division and the women's team play in the FA Women's National League South East. Worthing United F.C. nicknamed 'the "Mavericks" were playing in the Division One of the Sussex County League in 2013. Nicknamed Worthing Raiders, Worthing Rugby Football Club play in National League 2 East and since 1977 have been based in the nearby village of Angmering. Formed in 1999 Worthing Thunder play in the National Basketball League. The Worthing Bears (now defunct) won the British Basketball League in 1992—93. Worthing Hockey Club was formed in 1896 and has a number of teams. The home pitches are at Manor Sports Ground.

The promenade is the route used by the Worthing parkrun which has been taking place since June 2016. The free, weekly timed 5 km run had 420 people attending the first event.

Alongside Johannesburg and Adelaide, Worthing is one of only three locations in the world to have hosted the men's World Bowls Championship twice. The events were held in 1972 and 1992, both at Beach House Park, which is sometimes known as the spiritual home of bowls, and is also the venue for the annual National Championships each August. Beach House Park also hosted the Women's World Bowls Championship in 1977.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"

|+

! scope="col" | Club

! scope="col" | Nickname

! scope="col" | Sport

! scope="col" | League

! scope="col" | Venue

! scope="col" | Established

| Worthing Cricket Club

| Cricket

| Sussex Premier League

| Manor Sports Ground

| 1855

| Worthing Football Club

| The Rebels

| Football

| National League South

| Woodside Road

| 1886

| Worthing Rugby Football Club

| Raiders

| Rugby union

| National League 2 East

| Roundstone Lane, Angmering

| 1920

| Worthing United Football Club

| The Mavericks

| Football

| Southern Combination Football League

| Robert Albon Memorial Ground

| 1988

| Worthing Thunder

| Thunder

| Basketball

| English Basketball League

| Worthing Leisure Centre

| 1999

| Worthing F.C. Women

| The Rebels or the Reds

| Football

| FA Women's National League South East

| Woodside Road

Notable people

Notable inhabitants include:

Britt Allcroft, writer/director/producer best known for creating Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
Luke Nelson, basketball player, born and raised in Worthing and first played basketball for the Worthing Thunder youth teams.
Jane Austen, author, lived at Stanford Cottage, Worthing, during the autumn of 1805. Her unfinished novel Sanditon (1817) is set in the early days of the development of Worthing as a resort.
Mary Shelley, author of the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus , inherited Castle Goring in 1845.
Oscar Wilde, author, wrote The Importance of Being Earnest while staying in Worthing during the summer of 1894 and even named its protagonist, Jack Worthing, in its honour.
Liz Smith, actress, 'The Vicar of Dibley', 'The Royle Family'.
David Remfry, painter and curator
Henty brothers, Australian pioneer farmers including Edward Henty, born in West Tarring in 1810
James Bateman, horticulturalist
Thomas Shaw Brandreth, mathematician and inventor
Copley Fielding, artist
Octav Botnar, founder of Datsun UK, ran his automobile import business from the town
Gwendoline Christie, actress, model
Nicollette Sheridan, actress, Desperate Housewives, birthplace
DJ Fresh, musician, birthplace
Christopher Hewett, actor, Mr. Belvedere
William Henry Hudson, writer and naturalist born in Argentina
Billy Idol, musician, lived and attended high school in the town
Mike Kerr, singer and bassist of British rock duo Royal Blood, grew up in the town.
Keith Emerson, musician, lived and attended school in the town
Peter Bonetti, England goalkeeper
Byron Dafoe, National Hockey League goaltender
Patrick Hadley, English composer. Went to Saint Ronan's School West Worthing
Kenny Tutt, English chef and winner of the MasterChef 2018 UK TV show competition
Laurence Olivier, actor, born at Wathen Road, Dorking, Surrey in 1908
Anthony A. Barrett, Classical scholar and author
Henry Behrens, sideshow performer
Luke Pritchard, lead singer for The Kooks

In the 20th century, these writers chose to live in the town:

Beatrice Hastings, poet
Harold Pinter

Twin towns

Worthing is twinned with two rural districts; four small towns in the Eltztal region of Germany — Waldkirch, Elzach, Gutach im Breisgau and Simonswald, since 1997

and the Pays des Olonnes in France that includes the seaside town of Les Sables-d'Olonne, since 1998.