Vintage SEASIDE
From deckchairs and beach huts to fish and chips on the pier, we Brits cherish old-fashioned coastal pleasures. Kathryn Ferry goes in search of the most nostalgic of seaside experiences
“Wide stretches of sand are best for that perennial children’s favourite, the donkey ride”
Take a look at your old family photo albums and they will invariably contain pictures of your forebears enjoying themselves at the seaside. Ever since the 18th century, we have been creating a distinct leisure landscape around the coast to provide us with holiday treats in designated resorts.
Though the lure of the sea was the catalyst to attract visitors, the full seaside experience soon came to encompass much more. It was with good reason that the lyrics of famous Edwardian music hall ditty ‘Oh I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside’ emphasised the delights of the promenade, with its brass-band soundtrack echoed by the refrain ‘tiddly om pom pom’.
Each successive generation has added its own stamp to the seaside package, but the fundamentals have remained reassuringly familiar. Indeed, we have come to expect particular buildings, piers, attractions, sounds, rides and food as part of the British seaside’s distinctive backdrop. Such coastal delights can offer a welcome antidote to modern life – after all, you don’t need an electronic device to build a sandcastle – and if you know where to look, you can find some wonderfully nostalgic gems that will bring you a little bit closer to our shared seaside past.
VINTAGE CHARMS
Since the Millennium, beach huts have become increasingly trendy, cheerful symbols of lazy days by the sea, which have helped draw attention back to everything else our varied coastline has to offer. Southwold’s famously expensive huts add their retro vibe to the gentle time-warp feeling that pervades the Suffolk town as strongly as the malty aroma of Adnams
Brewery. Some are available for hire, but just enjoying their witty names as you stroll past Jabba the Hut or Two Fat Ladies is a vintage experience in itself. At Mablethorpe in Lincolnshire, the concrete huts with pagodastyle roofs are made from reused Second World War Nissen huts. For picturesque appeal, the huts raised on stilts in front of a pine forest at Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk are hard to beat.
Wide stretches of sand are the best for that perennial children’s favourite, the donkey ride. These days, donkeys have employment rights to keep them fit and healthy, but you will still find them at traditional resorts such as Blackpool, Scarborough, Skegness and Weston-super-Mare.
To hear the tell-tale shout of Mr Punch’s “That’s the way to do it!”, head for Professor Mark Poulton’s show on Weymouth beach or join the audience outside Codman’s Punch and Judy booth at Llandudno. The Codmans have been passing their puppeteering skills from father to son for more than 100 years.
Llandudno’s air of Victorian gentility is enhanced by its pier – the longest in Wales – with lovely original kiosks along its uncluttered deck and an Edwardian pavilion turned amusement arcade. On Worthing Pier, the buildings are streamlined art deco and there is a resident pianist in the light-filled Southern Pavilion café for added 1930s ambience.
For a post-war pier experience, try Boscombe in Dorset, where the ‘flying wing’ entrance design is a must-see for fans of mid-century modern architecture. At Southsea’s Clarence Pier, there’s another funky 1960s entrance strikingly topped by a blue and yellow tower with a Wimpy Bar for added retro flavour.
If you prefer to be in the water rather than walking above it, the interwar golden age of outdoor swimming pools lives on at Plymouth’s Tinside Lido and the uniquely triangular Jubilee Pool at Penzance. The most stylish survival is Saltdean Lido near Brighton, first opened in 1938 and now partially restored by a community-led project.
For a hint of the Edwardian elegance that once epitomised seaside grand hotels, Newquay’s Headland Hotel blends old and new in its stunning location above Fistral Beach. And, if you don’t mind your grandeur a bit faded, the art nouveau Hotel de Paris overlooks Cromer Pier. For deco glamour, follow Hercule Poirot
to the Midland Hotel at Morecambe, designed by Oliver Hill with sculptures by Eric Gill and murals reinstated from photos of the lost originals by Eric Ravilious. The Burgh Island Hotel at Bigbury in Devon is another famously decadent 1930s retreat, while the Riviera Hotel at Bowleaze near Weymouth is a lesser-known modernist gem. Going retro on a budget, you can stay at Brighstone Holiday Centre on the Isle of Wight, built in the heyday of holiday camps and still with original 1932 chalets.
TASTE OF THE SEASIDE
Besides the classic fish and chips, there are some food experiences you can’t replicate inland, such as seeing sticks of rock rolled before your eyes in Great Yarmouth’s Docwra Rock Shop or devouring a knickerbocker glory in an old-fashioned Italian ice-cream parlour. The Bruccianis have been serving ices at Morecambe since 1939, while the neon signage above Morelli’s in Broadstairs is as fabulously 1950s as its décor of pink leatherette and Lloyd Loom chairs. At Scarborough’s Harbour Bar, enticing sundaes are advertised above the Formica counters. Notarianni’s in Eastbourne is a genuine vintage Milk Bar. In Weston-superMare, the 1960s interior of the Regency Restaurant is so unaltered that it stood in for a London café in the recent BBC One drama The Trial of Christine Keeler.
Transport buffs can ride on a Blackpool heritage tram, travel on the Dartmouth Steam Railway that skirts the English Riviera coast from Paignton, or see Brighton seafront from Volks Electric Railway, opened in 1883 and now the oldest of its kind in the world. Saltburn-bythe-Sea boasts the earliest operational waterbalance cliff lift in Britain while Babbacombe’s funicular railway affords stunning views from South Devon towards Lyme Bay in Dorset. For the UK’s steepest funicular head to Hastings.
More hair-raising historic rides are on offer at coastal amusement parks. Sir Hiram Maxim’s Captive Flying Machine has been spinning passengers through the air at Blackpool Pleasure Beach since 1904. Wooden rollercoasters can be found at Blackpool (the 1934 Grand National) and Great Yarmouth (the 1932 Scenic Railway). Celebrating its centenary this year, the UK’s oldest rollercoaster is at Margate, where the Dreamland amusement park has been rebuilt around it. Old Dreamland favourites, such as Brooklands Speedway, the Gallopers and the Wedgwood Tea Cups, have been joined by new adrenaline rides to keep the whole family happy.
Bandstands continue to provide live music in the open air with summer concert seasons for
“Bandstands provide live music in the open air with concerts for listeners in deckchairs”
listeners in deckchairs. At Filey and Folkestone, musicians play in Victorian cast-iron structures, while Eastbourne has its tiled interwar band enclosure. Morecambe Winter Gardens offers building tours alongside performances in the sumptuous Victorian auditorium. Venues from the 1920s and 30s include Weston-super-Mare Winter Gardens, Aberdeen Beach Ballroom and the internationally famous De la Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea, a masterpiece of modernism that hosts shows, exhibitions and a restaurant.
Top for atmosphere and wow factor are Great Yarmouth Hippodrome and Blackpool Tower. If you’ve never seen live synchronised swimming, go to Yarmouth’s art nouveau Hippodrome where original Edwardian machinery is used to fill the circus ring with 60,000 gallons of water for a spectacular finale. There are only three other sinking rings in Europe and one of them is in Blackpool Tower. There the circus space is an amazing Moorish fantasy, a riot of mosaic and plasterwork patterns. And once you’ve enjoyed the show, there is still the top of the tower itself to visit, as well as the stunning Tower Ballroom. You can take afternoon tea while watching the dancers skim across its famous sprung floor or better still, join in!