An English Seaside Town

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What are your favourite english seaside towns? which have the most appeal? what about ones you dont like? and what do you look for in an english seaside town?

gareth (gareth), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:20 (nineteen years ago) link

i like bridlington, its bustly and somehow welcoming, blackpool is obviously both guache and gaudy, im not sure whether i like it or not. leysdown, on the isle of sheppey is forlorn yet surprisingly popular, adam f and the osmonds pump from mini-fairgrounds. sheppey seems the uk base for nebuluous fairground men

http://www.norfolkwindmills.com/images/leysdown5.jpg

http://www.norfolkwindmills.com/images/leysdown6.jpg

i dont like brighton so much, its too big for its boots

i wonder about lincolnshire and norfolk, as i am often wont to do

gareth (gareth), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:23 (nineteen years ago) link

i think these places are without harbours. tell me about harbours in english seaside towns

gareth (gareth), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:24 (nineteen years ago) link

Lowestoft has a great beach & the best fish & chips, but it really tacky. I love Aldeburgh (sp) & Southwold because they are old fashioned & so very picturesque.

http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/tcg/My%20Pictures/Southwold%20Lighthouse.jpg
http://www.picturesofengland.com/imagesUpload/thumbs500/Southwold-10675296571.jpg

Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:26 (nineteen years ago) link

I liked it on this thread when DG said "Southend = the titties".

N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:28 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.kent.ac.uk/hospitality/images/Whitstable%20Beach%20Huts.jpg

I like Whitstable - proper Kentish seaside town only populated by retired people and locals out for a ruck. The man in the chippy there has eight layers of congelaed kebab fat stuck to the hair on his arm.

Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:30 (nineteen years ago) link

those beach huts are beautiful, i started a thread on beach huts but there werent many answers, i dont think there was as good a pic as that one there anyway. a trip to whistable looks promising

what about margate? i hear it is cockernee-on-sea, but now the front line on the daily express's war against balkanistas?

gareth (gareth), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:34 (nineteen years ago) link

My sister in law's family live in Whitstable hence my brothers wedding took place there!

It was ace. The seafood was magnificent.

Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:34 (nineteen years ago) link

I found myself at Burnham-on-Sea once, in February. Proper seaside towns should be ghost towns out of season and we really did seem like the only people there. With the tide out, the beach was an endless plain of almost-mud leading into the Bristol Channel. The sky was a livid red in the sunset behind distant storm clouds. It felt like the last town at the end of the World and I loved it.

robster (robster), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:35 (nineteen years ago) link

For Gareth...
http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/tcg/My%20Pictures/Beach%20Huts%20at%20Southwold.jpg

Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Two words. Crazy golf.

Tag (Tag), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Margate is grim, grim, grim, for all the above reasons. I never want to go there ever again (and I like WESTON SUPER MARE!)

Whitstable does indeed to good seafood and has a nice pub actually on the beach itself:

http://www.oysta.fsnet.co.uk/wbeach.jpg

Porthleven in Cornwall has a great harbour:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/photos/porthleven/16.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/photos/porthleven/17.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/photos/porthleven/2.jpg

Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:46 (nineteen years ago) link

Selsey

jel, Thursday, 29 April 2004 10:53 (nineteen years ago) link

Swanage in Dorset. The chip shop does veggie sausages in batter and it used to have a friendly tramp.

For a reason I cannot fathom several people from Billericay in Essex ran away to Swanage in the mid 80's. I was friends with the runaways and always enjoyed my visits. It was my first taste of adventure.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Did you and the Billericay children foil international smuggling rings in your school holidays?

Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:20 (nineteen years ago) link

I think they were paid to leave town by Teresa Gorman.

N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:21 (nineteen years ago) link

This actually is the best thread ever. My mate Ben runs the crazy golf in dawlish - it's the best job in town.

Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:32 (nineteen years ago) link

http://homepages.pavilion.net/nmarchant/southsea2l.jpg

robster (robster), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:40 (nineteen years ago) link

Hide on the promenade
Etch a postcard :
"How I Dearly Wish I Was Not Here"

Moz (Rob Bolton), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:41 (nineteen years ago) link

What's that pub on the end of the Southsea Pier, the one with the kids playground and the ancient bottles of Babycham behind the bar? That's a terrible, terrible place...

Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:42 (nineteen years ago) link

southwold is gorgeous... always go for boxing day walks there, followed by creams tea and adnams beer. being there makes you feel like you're on the set of an evelyn waugh/pg wodehouse adaptation.

Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:44 (nineteen years ago) link

Incidentally Nick, I have been on that crazy golf course, I think, years ago. I was rub.

Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:45 (nineteen years ago) link

How is the crazy golf in Dawlish? I've never been. My favourite is the one at Lyme Regis which benefits from being split-level.

I remember being a bit disappointed by the one at Plymouth, but loving the Weston-Super-Mare one.

I am realising that the most recent game of crazy golf I played at any of the above was around 12 years ago, and my WSMCG experiences are now more than a quarter of a century in the past.

I wonder whether any of them survived the 1990s. And whether I did.

The worst thing, and the most typical thing, about Sidmouth is that it has a putting green where the Crazy Golf should be.

Tim (Tim), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:45 (nineteen years ago) link

Borth and up the coast to Ynyslas (although obv. Welsh and not English): Faded pastel houses, looming grey hills, sand dunes pocketed with teenagers taking bong hits.

Lymington: Smart and yachty, but some kind of sweetness saves it from being too rah. Search especially: the old salt flats just out of town.

Padstow and surrounding: gives a feeling of an older pagan England underneath the tourist crap and Rick Stein.

Anna (Anna), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:47 (nineteen years ago) link

mmmm cream teas in southwold.

Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:48 (nineteen years ago) link

The Dawlish crazy golf is small and crap, but has nice flower beds, and, as I mentioned, my mate Ben, perched outside the shack on a deck chair, reading The Times and The Sun and, on a Saturday afternoon, chewing the fat with me.

Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:48 (nineteen years ago) link

Is Scarborough still the same as it was about fifteen years ago? I have fond memories of the outdoor swimming pool, Peasholm Park, and going all Braveheart on a cheeky little shit from the place next door to the guesthouse.

Rumpy Pumpkin (rumpypumpkin), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:48 (nineteen years ago) link

Dunno about the kids playground or the ancient bottles of babycham but you may be thinking of the Albert Bar, Matt. On Saturdays it plays host to this.

robster (robster), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:52 (nineteen years ago) link

"Did you and the Billericay children foil international smuggling rings in your school holidays?"

We had cider adventures by the millpond.

"I think they were paid to leave town by Teresa Gorman."

Billericay is oddly connected with politics. It used to be the constituency that declared first in a general election (but not for many years now), plus we have the legacy of Harvey Proctor and the evil under the sun of Theresa Gorman.

Appologies for going off thread, Billericay is nowhere near the seaside. That's why Southend was invented.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 29 April 2004 11:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Likes: Brighton, Southend, Southwold, Wells Next The Sea, Broadstairs, Clacton, Aldeburgh

Dislikes: Whitstable (no proper sea front; not keen on the high street), Hastings (had a rough air), Margate (ditto), Southport (no proper sea front, desolate pier)

Inbetweens: Cromer, Southsea, Herne Bay, Eastbourne, Great Yarmouth, Maryport, Silloth

Dimly remembered likes: Minehead, Scarborough

Dimly remembered dislikes:

Dimly remembered inbetweens: Morecambe, Ilfracombe

Cannot remember: Ramsgate, Littlehampton

My favourite of all is Welsh: Tenby (and has a harbour!)

David (David), Thursday, 29 April 2004 12:12 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh and I like Burnham on Crouch (of course) but that is on an estuary, not quite by the sea.

David (David), Thursday, 29 April 2004 12:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Damn I forgot the Isle of Wight!

David (David), Thursday, 29 April 2004 12:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Most people would be pleased.

Tim (Tim), Thursday, 29 April 2004 12:15 (nineteen years ago) link

I rather like Southport. All that wind and curly Victorian arcitechture.

Anna (Anna), Thursday, 29 April 2004 12:48 (nineteen years ago) link

It (Southport) seemed odd. Like people only go there to go shopping. The high street was thronged..the pier and sea front deserted and a bit decrepit. I like a bit of both (shopping AND promenading).

David (David), Thursday, 29 April 2004 12:53 (nineteen years ago) link

Some, if not lots, of these places will be huge neon-lit microVegas gambling meccas quite soon so enjoy them while you can...

Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, this casino thing is an interesting development. Do you think we'll all be at it quite soon?

N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Scarborough and Whitby are very beautiful places

I have happy memories of Bude, Westward Ho! and Swanage

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:19 (nineteen years ago) link

Barry Mount? we had enough of that in New York thanks

stevem (blueski), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:21 (nineteen years ago) link

Bournemouth. Did you know... Oh, never mind.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:21 (nineteen years ago) link

Westard Ho! is the best place name in Britain. Is the exclamation mark an official thing?

Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:24 (nineteen years ago) link

Yes, it's named after a book isn't it?

Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:25 (nineteen years ago) link

I liked Whitstable the one time I went there. Oddly, I am becoming fonder of Seaford and Eastbourne as I grow older. Cornwall doesn't really count as too Celtic and nice.

Archel (Archel), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:25 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.edwinjonesproperties.co.uk/jpgs/ebseafront1.jpg

Archel (Archel), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:30 (nineteen years ago) link

I went camping to Westward Ho! when I was young. A kid pooped his pants in our tent. OK, it was me.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:31 (nineteen years ago) link

hehe.

Other English towns with punctuation in? we may have done this already.

Archel (Archel), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:32 (nineteen years ago) link

There are lots of hyphens, obv.

There are some abbreviating apostrophes (e.g. John O'Groats), and it feels as though there should be some posessive ones too, but who can tell whether a town's real name is, say, King's Lynn or Kings Lynn? I'm guessing Mr. Huntsman will be able to tell me.

I can't think of any full stops outside abbreviations (e.g. Ottery St. Mary), and I can't think of any commas or question marks at all.

Tim (Tim), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:39 (nineteen years ago) link

I am sure there are commas. I just can't think where.

Archel (Archel), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:40 (nineteen years ago) link

I forgot to include King's Lynn actually (think it does have an apostrophe..certainly looks right). Went there last year. Quite liked it.

David (David), Thursday, 29 April 2004 13:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Yes it's (KL) a port isn't it, not a resort. Nice train ride from London through the Fens.

David (David), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:02 (nineteen years ago) link

I wonder if anyone has ever gone to Beachy Head to kill themselves, having successfully blanked out the thoughts of what it might do to their friends and family, but then turned around at the last minute on the grounds of not wanting to upset the local residents.

N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:03 (nineteen years ago) link

I doubt it!

Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:03 (nineteen years ago) link

All my favourite seaside towns are Welsh. Harlech, Aberystwyth, Llandudno, Porthmadog, Fairbourne...I don't think anywhere in England beats those. I spent most of my childhood holidays in Barmouth, which is about as perfect as seaside towns get, I think, and has possibly the best chip shop in the world.

I have a fondness for Blackpool and Skegness, but if I want to go to the seaside I would always rather go to Wales. I've not been to the south coast much, I can't picture any towns there except Bournemouth, which is okay.

Cathy (Cathy), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:07 (nineteen years ago) link

http://img43.photobucket.com/albums/v133/cathyleech/barmouth1.jpg

Ah, Barmouth. This thread is making me plan summer holidays.

Cathy (Cathy), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Beachy Head IS in Eastbourne. Well, kind of above it and to the west a bit.

Archel (Archel), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:09 (nineteen years ago) link

I went to Beacy Head recently but didn't jump off. Quite a feat when you consider I support West Ham.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Archel - I know... that's why the idea of sitting round Eastbourne waiting to die seemed so silly.

Is the bottom of Beachy Head just rocks and sea? Someone should concrete over the bottom bit and put a nice cafe there, that'd stop people. Either that or a comically-placed branch half way down to catch people.

Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:12 (nineteen years ago) link

Or a trampoline!

Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Actually a lot of people who jump from beachy head don't 'succeed' because it isn't like a sheer drop and you CAN just get stuck on a grassy ledge halfway down.

Archel (Archel), Thursday, 29 April 2004 14:16 (nineteen years ago) link

I thought I might make it to the bottom of this thread with no-one having mentioned Cromer -- but not quite.

Still, Cromer: the pier, the great stone seafront, the bookshops, the pubs, the fish & chips, the memories, the storms and rain. All the usual things you have all been on about. What else?

the pinefox, Thursday, 29 April 2004 17:57 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.tractortown.fsnet.co.uk/47s/47817%20Dawlish.jpg

I walk along this wall every day on my way to the train station.

Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 April 2004 18:01 (nineteen years ago) link

The breakwater on the far left of the picture is where I stood and listened to "Blinded By The Lights" on my way to the pub on friday night, and watched all the street lights reflect and jigger off the sea. Twas quite byootifool. And freaky. Even standing still I felt like I was gonna fall over.

Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 April 2004 18:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Nick, where is that?

I had a lovely time in Scarborough and Whitby years ago.

Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 29 April 2004 18:05 (nineteen years ago) link

That's Dawlish, in Devon, about 9 miles down the river&coast from Exeter.

Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 April 2004 18:07 (nineteen years ago) link

And here's a bit of our freaky cliff.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~keizee/images/Dawlish_1a.jpg

Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 April 2004 18:08 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.uksouthwest.co.uk/dawlish/dawlish.jpg

It's a pretty fucking spectaculr bit of coastline, actually. From the sea it looks alien.

Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 April 2004 18:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Teignmouth is less spectacular, due to its scraggy pier.

http://www.torquayengland.com/566x425TeignmouthPier2.jpg

Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 April 2004 18:12 (nineteen years ago) link

Bugger seaside towns, mind - go to Dartmoor and swim in the river dart at Spitchwick. it might be colder, but it's amazing.

http://www.pepes.force9.co.uk/stock-photos/spitchwick.JPG

Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 April 2004 18:14 (nineteen years ago) link

I had a thread on Margate a few months back when HSA and I went there to check out an art gallery... it's grim. But full of displaced artists from Hoxton. Bizarre. Plus, the caves were great. We met the lady who runs the Shell Grotto but we didn't get that far out, and besides, she wouldn't have been there to take us on a tour as she was at the opening!

I love the Isle of Wight, especially Ventnor. It's weird and creepy and strange without feeling rough.

I really want to go to Whitby. Someone from HSA's department went to the Goth Festival there and said it was lovely. The bits I saw on Time Team or whichever archeology programme dug it up looked lovely.

Super-Kate (kate), Thursday, 29 April 2004 18:28 (nineteen years ago) link

My local pub was *dead* last weekend, because all its regulars are goths, and were in Whitby.

I'm from Cleethorpes. The sea is brown there. Here's a picture, admittedly on a foggy day.

caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 30 April 2004 08:26 (nineteen years ago) link

I've been to Cleethorpes. My girlf's from Grimsby. I seem to recall a very bad club.

Matt (Matt), Friday, 30 April 2004 08:30 (nineteen years ago) link

I went to Cleethorpes when I was a spotty child and we saw Bob Todd walking down the beach. My mum was attacked by Emu at the local theatre.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 30 April 2004 08:31 (nineteen years ago) link

Near Whitby, of course, is Robin Hood's Bay:

http://www.north-yorkshire-moors.freeserve.co.uk/Bay2.jpg

http://www.middlewoodfarm.fsnet.co.uk/openings.jpg

http://www.jorgetutor.com/greatbritain/inglaterra/ne/robinhoodbay/robinhoodbay1.jpg

http://www.eimc.brad.ac.uk/~ijpalmer/EIMCWhitby2002/RobinHood06.jpg

...which has mondo fossils just lying around on the beach. It's ace. But very twee indeed.

Liz :x (Liz :x), Friday, 30 April 2004 08:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Matt, was it you who said that your girlf used to compete in the Grimsby Recorder Festival?

caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 30 April 2004 08:37 (nineteen years ago) link

I liked plymouth (at least I think it was plymouth - i got a ferry to france from there. does that sound like plymouth?) it had a depressed seaside town thing, and a town centre that looked very like the horrible/beautiful town centres of west of scotland towns.

Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Friday, 30 April 2004 08:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Cromer's newsagents stock an astonishingly wide range of porn.

Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 30 April 2004 08:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Crab-related?

Liz :x (Liz :x), Friday, 30 April 2004 08:44 (nineteen years ago) link

My psychotic aunt lives in Cromer.

caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 30 April 2004 08:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Liz, oddly not.

Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 30 April 2004 08:49 (nineteen years ago) link

this thread makes me sad for reasons i can't explain

Dave Amos, Friday, 30 April 2004 09:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Anything with fossils automatically gets my vote.

Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 30 April 2004 09:45 (nineteen years ago) link

On the subject of beach huts, doesn't Robert Wyatt live in a beach hut... in Skegness or somewhere?

Charles Dexter (Holey), Friday, 30 April 2004 10:04 (nineteen years ago) link

She may have done, Caitlin. I shall ask her.

Matt (Matt), Friday, 30 April 2004 13:00 (nineteen years ago) link

I lived in Brighton for a year. I loved being by the sea and I loved the Full Moon (or is the half moon?) bar - that was cool. I didn't much like the architecture or the insufferably smug inhabitants but I guess nowhere's perfect.

My favourite English seaside town is Lyme Regis.

metalmickey, Friday, 30 April 2004 15:23 (nineteen years ago) link

In summer 1994 my family and I went to Bognor Regis for a daytrip. We ate chips by the seafront. Within fifteen minutes of our arrival an IRA bomb went off in the town. We went home. Not my fondest teenage memory...

Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 30 April 2004 17:04 (nineteen years ago) link

I cannot easily believe that anyone hasn't been to Whitby... [yet, I've never been to Cromer; may partly be to do with the distance factor] If you haven't been, get packing... :) It's probably the holiday place I've been to most often, partly as it's relatively near; i.e. on the same north-eastern coast as Sunderland where I have lived. But also, as it is so evocative a place.

Tom May (Tom May), Friday, 30 April 2004 20:07 (nineteen years ago) link

i have been to Whitby. we took a boat trip and bought fresh crab amongst other things. it were grand.

stevem (blueski), Saturday, 1 May 2004 00:40 (nineteen years ago) link

Man, I gotta second pinefox on Cromer. Ain't nothin' like a rainy June day, a princess from Luxemborg and a huge fucking spliff in Cromer.

The Second Drummer Drowned (Atila the Honeybun), Saturday, 1 May 2004 00:42 (nineteen years ago) link

I wouldn't know about #2 and #3, but I agree about the rainy June day.

the pinefox, Saturday, 1 May 2004 12:37 (nineteen years ago) link

I like Liz's last photo very much. It evokes the British seaside experience better than anything else I have seen.

N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 1 May 2004 13:26 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...
cromer

charltonlido (gareth), Monday, 18 July 2005 12:46 (eighteen years ago) link

five years pass...

What's Portsmouth like? I'm contemplating heading down there for a weekend, particularly to see the ships and the victory.

F-Unit (Ste), Tuesday, 12 October 2010 13:39 (thirteen years ago) link

it's a shithole.

but the old ships are cool. worth a daytrip not a weekend imo.

jabba hands, Tuesday, 12 October 2010 15:03 (thirteen years ago) link

^^^southampton fan

markers you think (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 12 October 2010 15:04 (thirteen years ago) link

ha, it's a fair cop. happy to admit that southampton is also a shithole.

jabba hands, Tuesday, 12 October 2010 15:10 (thirteen years ago) link

cheers, noted

F-Unit (Ste), Tuesday, 12 October 2010 15:43 (thirteen years ago) link

seven years pass...

is Portsmouth really just a shithole? I was thinking of taking a ferry up there next month, just for a couple of days, to look around (and tbh to buy some british candies before brexit makes those hard to come by on the continent).

droit au butt (Euler), Saturday, 22 September 2018 11:12 (five years ago) link

It certainly has that reputation. Plus it's full of drunken sailors, earl-y in the morning and 24/7.

Zach Same (Tom D.), Saturday, 22 September 2018 11:20 (five years ago) link

I am currently standing at the end of Hastings pier in the rain, guarding some balloons.

Colonel Poo, Saturday, 22 September 2018 11:59 (five years ago) link


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