‘All the elements of the classic British seaside holiday’: five unsung beach towns

28.05.2024 - 11:27 / theguardian.com

Photographer Martin Parr’s 1999 film Think of England captures the nostalgic appeal of Weymouth: roast dinners at seafront B&Bs, pensioners with cones of Mr Whippy, the carousel whirling to the familiar tune of the funfair organ. “It’s not a resort that needs a lot of razzmatazz,” says the man sitting in front of a “Sorry, No Vacancies” sign.

Since then Weymouth has hardly splashed into the 21st century. Behind the esplanade its pedestrianised shopping streets are flagged with To Let signs. And while its wide, sheltered beach is consistently voted among the nation’s favourites, the town itself is often overlooked in favour of its trendier seaside neighbours, from foodie Lyme Regis to on-the-up Bournemouth.

Still, Weymouth has all the elements of a classic British seaside holiday: donkey rides, Punch and Judy shows, sticks of rock. And the harbour, with its pretty tutti-frutti-coloured houses, is home to one of the best seafood restaurants in the country. Catch (four-course lunch from £40) opened in 2021 in the old fish market on the quay. Co-owner and chef Mike Naidoo started his career in a local chippie (and worked more recently in revered chef Jason Atherton’s kitchens). Here, he focuses on sustainably caught fish, usually from small day boats bobbing just outside.

In front of the restaurant is a fishmonger (Weyfish) and a takeaway (Hatch) for crab sandwiches. For ice-cream, deliciously retro Rossi’s Ices on the Esplanade is the classic, opened in 1937 by Fioravanti Figliolini: it makes only two or three flavours a day, to a secret family recipe.

The beach is beautiful, but offshore is just as big an attraction: Weymouth Bay has some of the best sailing waters in northern Europe and hosted the sailing events at the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics. There’s no need for a boat licence to get out there: the Official Test Centre, next to the National Sailing Academy at the northern edge of the Isle of Portland, offers sports from wing foiling to paddleboarding overlooking the bay.

Where to stayGloucester House (doubles from £159 B&B), a grand Georgian townhouse on the seafront, has 10 smartly decorated rooms, some with sea views and balconies.
Fiona Kerr

In the final decades of the last century Tynemouth appeared rather staid next to other north-east seaside resorts. While hen and stag parties and booze cruise Norwegians descended noisily on Whitley Bay and South Shields, Tynemouth (pronounced to rhyme with “south”) looked primly on, emitting – or so it seemed – a scent of mothballs, mildew and sweet sherry.

Though it has loosened up a fair bit since then and now embraces surfers, coffee-roasters, street food pop-ups, chocolatiers and micro pubs, the town still exudes a gracious charm. The sweeping