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The joys of the British seaside

Have a read of this wonderful nostalgic article from the Guardian...Many of the once great seaside towns have seen better days, but are still popular with the day trippers. The amusement arcades are still there, along with the pier, but you may have to head to Llandudno for a real Punch and Judy show.

Posted by
2693 posts

Thank you for an enjoyable read...on a trip to London in 2019 I took the train to Brighton as I'd always read about the seaside towns and wanted to explore one...of course it started off as a miserably rainy day but I managed to walk along the pebbled shore, visit the amusement arcade at the pier, have a wonderful roast lunch and poke around the Lanes and other parts of the town before heading back to London. This year I am planning to spend my birthday in Whitstable--hoping for better weather in mid-August!

Posted by
1306 posts

Whitstable is somewhere I've never been but I'd like to get round to going. Same goes for much of the quieter parts of the Kent coast.

It's funny the memory I have of Margate. I can date my first visit precisely, as we had to leave our hotel at 10am and wait all day for our bus back to Scotland. We (me, mum and stepdad) listened to Live Aid on a transistor radio all day, which dates it perfectly to July 13th 1985. I loved the hobby shop up in the main street (Margate is the home of Hornby model trains and Scalextric slot racing cars) and I still have a couple of 60's Scalextric cars I bought on that visit.

Have any of the northern forum members been to Blackpool recently? What about Morecambe? Last time I was in Blackpool was over ten years ago and I haven't been to Morecambe since I was a child.

The article mentions Martin Parr's The Last Resort. It's a really important book of photos, published 1986. An iconic work when it comes to British contemporary photography. Here's a link to a really good article about it and some good quality representations of the photos -

https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/martin-parr-the-last-resort/

Posted by
8131 posts

I was in Blackpool 2 or 3 months ago with same day appointments in Fleetwood and St Anne's so got a full length tram ride. I have known Blackpool for many a year (I spent a whole winter working at the Pleasure Beach there one year when we lost over 50% of our crane time due to winds, and the snowplough tram was called out twice). But I was shocked at how many properties were boarded up and derelict. I like my Blackpool, but was struggling that day to find the good side.

Morecambe is set to get the new Eden Centre north. It is a curate's egg kind of place. The bad sits cheek by jowl with the good parts.

Even 40 years ago. when I lived there as a student, my part was OK, but 2 streets away was very run down. The Eden Centre is to be built where the Old Superdome was- a great leisure facility and entertainment facility which was closed due to short sightedness. Money has been poured into Morecambe over the years, and just vanished. Very, very sad. I hope the two lynchpins- the Midland Hotel and the Eden can finally rejuvenate the town, because it has been so sad to see the decline.

The plus side- very cheap beer in both towns and the famous £1 burger in Blackpool!

Having said that I would choose Morecambe over Blackpool for a holiday any day. Many, many Brits though still love Blackpool for all its foibles.

Posted by
1306 posts

Blackpool is a bit of law unto itself I think. It's crazy how run down some parts are. At the same time the facilities for having a great time are still there too. I both like and dislike poverty tourism videos on Youtube, but the channel "Walk On the Wildside" has some fairly impartial views from a local, with only a bit of dereliction as entertainment.

I visited Blackpool, more specifically Fleetwood, several times in the 90's. I had a friend from school who moved down there. She lived in a B&B in Blackpool for a while then got her own place in Fleetwood. Lots of Scottish people with addiction problems moved down there in the 90's. It was really the place to be to live the heroin lifestyle. She's no longer with us as the lifestyle caught up with her at quite a young age unfortunately.

On a lighter note, my sister went to Blackpool with a couple of girlfriends last year. She had a good time by all accounts. I think it's somewhere quite good for the girls to go to have some fun. I think there's a little irony involved, as it is quite cheesy. I think they enjoyed the busy gay scene in Blackpool and there's bartenders dying to sell you booze all over town in all sorts of pubs, some better than others.

Posted by
8157 posts

wasleys, thanks one again for adding to my burgeoning list places I still need to see in the UK! I actually thought about going to Blackpool on this trip, because sometimes places like that can be a lot of fun! Didn't make it, obviously, but there's always next time.

Posted by
5471 posts

Well I've been to Blackpool. Yep. Spent a few nights there once, maybe a couple of times, in the 90s. No, not for the heroin lifestyle. For the ballroom dance lifestyle. Went to the Winter Gardens for a ballroom dance competition. It was quite the place to be for that! Still is, I think.

Posted by
8131 posts

What none of these newspaper articles will tell you is how good Cumbria is for beaches. There is far more than just the Lake District to the county. There are the resort towns and villages like Allonby and Silloth (a former Railway town, still with lots of caravan sites and several holiday parks- not a place that faded away, ).

And down that coast from Silloth to Maryport lots of Roman history to explore, and the one time big salt industry- most exemplified by the 17th century Crosscanonby salt pans- an industry which lasted for 700 years on the Cumbrian coast.

And Seascale- another railway resort which never fully developed to it's planned extent. Easily the best fish and chip shop in the County there.

But also St Bees- a place chock full of history. For the locals there are Nethertown and Braystones in between St Bees and Seascale- places you only glimpse from the train, with just fantastic beaches and their own little seaside communities.

In between Millom and Barrow in Furness (both places which would be maligned on this forum) there are lots of fantastic beaches with the simple joys of the seaside.

Posted by
8131 posts

Went to the Winter Gardens for a ballroom dance competition. It was quite the place to be for that! Still is, I think.

Yes it is, a long long time ago I was in a Singing Competition there- when I could sing- and the daughter of a friend in Whitehaven goes there regularly for dancing competitions.

... and the Blackpool Tower Ballroom with it's daily dances to the sound of the mighty Wurlitzer organ for 6 hours every day. A Blackpool institution. An iconic place in the world of Ballroom dancing.

Posted by
769 posts

I was brought up in Southsea, the seaside resort bit of Portsmouth. Loved it. Classic south coast shingle beach but a few patches of sand amidst the pebbles that us locals knew about. We lived about a mile from the beach and honestly the excitement at a weekend when it was judged warm enough to go. “Warm enough” was not all that warm, incidentally: like most Brits, I’ve sat on the beach shivering with blue lips sheltering by a canvas windbreak.

A pier that film director Ken Russell tried to burn down (see final scene of Tommy). Ice cream kiosks dotted along the three-mile promenade.
Beautiful parks lining the promenade. Canoe Lake, where we took swan boats out and crabbed with bits of bacon rind (do crabs really like bacon?) The special treat as a child of being allowed to stay up late and see the Rock Gardens illuminated.

I don’t go back that often - maybe every couple of years - but last time I noticed that some of the cafés and kiosks on the prom have become smashed avocado places, which feels a bit fancy for Southsea.

I think the British “beach” experience is very different to the US beach experience: we were always very happy with the small pleasures - the feel of seaweed slapping against my legs as I waded into the not-very-warm sea for a swim is very evocative to me (I still sea swim).

Posted by
5550 posts

Unfortunately you won't want to go swimming in the sea at Southsea due to Southern Water's repeated discharges of raw sewage into the sea. I like to walk my dog on the beach at Hayling during low tide as the huge sandbank is great for dogs but I'm wary of doing that now due to the disgusting conditions. Sadly this isn't a unique experience, the great British seaside is being polluted by water companies all over the isles.

Posted by
1451 posts

I always try to pre warn anyone on the forum who is thinking of including a beach visit that the weather can be very chilly even in summer.

The British seaside holiday, which I still take every year in Pembrokeshire, is kind of a law unto itself. Families decamp to the beach with enough tents, windbreaks, cool boxes of food and layers of clothing to survive for a month. I usually am wearing a fleece. But I love it anyway.

Posted by
769 posts

Unfortunately you won't want to go swimming in the sea at Southsea due to Southern Water's repeated discharges of raw sewage into the sea.

Yes, I don’t think I’d attempt it these days.

One of my most referred-to web pages is the water condition check for where I live now.

Posted by
1306 posts

I always try to pre warn anyone on the forum who is thinking of including a beach visit that the weather can be very chilly even in summer.

I know it's much further north than the places we've been talking about, but I had to borrow my mum's hat and scarf for an evening walk on the beach in Nairn a couple of weeks ago. A wooly hat and scarf in June! I did look rather fetching in my leopard print scarf though, have to admit.

Posted by
181 posts

Even if the weather is hot, the sea can be cold - notably on the east Coast (which is where some of the best beaches are)..

The same is true of rivers - and never swim in the Thames, apart from sewage pollution it has some strong currents and is dangerous.