Are Bognor and Clacton really Britain's worst seaside towns?
The residents of Bognor Regis have reacted angrily after Which? released the findings of a survey that named it the joint “worst” seaside town in the country.
According to the report, both the West Sussex resort and Clacton-on-Sea in Essex received a customer score of just 47 per cent, largely thanks to “a lowly one-star rating for their attractions, scenery, peace and quiet, and value for money.”
Britain’s popular seaside resorts were rated in 10 categories in total, with additional factors including the quality of the beach, food and drink, and accommodation.
Bamburgh topped the poll of Which? members, scoring an impressive 89 per cent approval rating. The consumer champion lauded the Northumberland town as “wild and unspoilt with views to the Farne Islands in one direction and imposing Bamburgh Castle dominating the other.
It added: “If you’re the kind of person who thinks a good walk by the sea blows away all manner of cobwebs, then this is the perfect spot for you to wrap up and stride forth, with its long, dramatic sweep of sand.”
Welsh towns performed well, with an impressive four seaside spots in the top 20. Portmeirion, which Marcel Theroux lauded as “ a dreamlike place which, in spite of its small size, is somehow capable of displacing reality” when writing for Telegraph Travel, was awarded second place.
Dartmouth, North Berwick and pretty St Mawes rounded out the top five, while Tenby, Llandudno and Saint Davids were Wales’s other winners.
But at the other end of the scale, the residents of Bognor feel as though they’ve been judged unfairly by their peers, who reportedly called their town “tacky”.
Jo Millen, the owner of Bognor ice cream shop Rainbows, told The Guardian: “Which? should just keep advising us about the washing machine that we should buy rather than grade the negative views about Bognor from people on the internet.”
Paul Wells, the owner of shop Unique Promotions Printing & Embroidery, said: “The people here are welcoming and will get over whatever this survey says about Bognor. They can't say there is nothing to do here.”
“How many of the people who voted in their survey actually have been in Bognor recently?” asked Jo Millen.
Telegraph Travel’s Greg Dickinson visited the Sussex Riviera during the height of summer last year. “If I could customise the front of my postcard from Bognor Regis it would have a collage of photographs,” he said.
“One would be the couple I saw sat on their camping chairs, skilfully resculpting their 99 Flakes. Then there’s the Polish teenager I watched doing a backflip off the pier, to the eruption of cheers from his mates. Another is of a toddler, bent double to pick up a shell for the first time.
“And along the bottom, underlining them all, is a panorama of the big blue English Channel, ebbing and flowing like the fortunes of a town whose raison d’etre is to show people a good time.”
Most of the seaside towns that fared poorly in the Which? poll are those that people conventionally think of as “faded”. But many are resurgent. Coming in close to the bottom was Margate, which Nigel Richardson calls “a brilliant place for a short visit”, and Morecambe, which Telegraph Travel’s Gavin Haines believes is “poised for a comeback”.
Weston-super-Mare also featured at the bottom end of the table. Visiting for Telegraph Travel late last year, Sarah Baxter remarked: “Three years since Banksy’s Dismaland put Weston unexpectedly on the map, and under glorious autumn sunshine, things feel brighter.
“Weston isn’t quite Bristol-on-Sea, but curiosity and house prices are pushing some to look west... And where hip Bristolians go, the artisan coffee, co-working hubs and micro-pubs will follow.”
Coming to the defence of both Bognor and Clacton, Tracey Davies, one of Telegraph Travel’s regional experts, says: “Born in Southend-on-Sea and living in Brighton, I have candy floss running through my veins, so I feel sad that Clacton and Bognor Regis are at the bottom of the heap.
“I love all British seaside resorts, but I have a special fondness for the more cheesy, slightly run-down ones,” she says. “While Southwold and St Mawes are all very nice, they are middle-class resorts. There is something charming and unrefined about Clacton with its jangly amusement arcades, polystyrene pots of vinegary cockles and Donkey Derby. And Bognor will always have a place in my heart – if only because of Butlins.”
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