|
Post by patricklondon on Apr 26, 2011 17:04:07 GMT
By tradition, a sunny Bank Holiday Monday more or less requires Londoners to go to the seaside - and the closest to hand is Brighton. You can go for the over-the-top orientalist splendour of the Pavilion www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/RoyalPavilion/Pages/home.aspxor check out the antiques, arty and alternative shops and cafés in the Lanes, the eighteenth-century gentrification of the original fishing village: But for most people, Brighton is for fresh air and fun, preferably as vulgar, saucy and sometimes downright raucous as possible If it' s still a bit early and breezy for the beach to appeal, and if strenuous exercise isn't your thing, then the pier always offers something. From the simple pleasure of getting yourself photographed in a comical pose or topical situation, you can stroll along the pier, taking in the views and peering between the decking boards, carefully spaced to let you experience the thrill of seeing the sea beneath your feet without any of the inconveniences of being on a boat. And, of course, among the opportunities to relieve yourself of your money, there are food stalls and a fortune-teller (if you believe the signboard, even the biggest financial firms in London consult the tarot reader, which may explain a lot). You can't come to the seaside without buying some rock: Traditionally this comes in sticks, lettered all through with the name of the resort where you bought it. These are often about 6-10 inches long and pink on the outside, which might possibly add a potential meaning or two to this old song: Your tooth-threatening souvenirs are also available in versions for your football team or for the recipient: Amaze your loved ones with a novelty meal: or amuse your more disreputable friends with something saucier: With treats and souvenirs bought, there's still the amusement arcade and its "penny falls" machines, cranes that never pick up the cuddly toy, and shoot 'em up video games: and right at the end of the pier, the funfair offers all the waltzers, dodgems, coconut shies, racing games, horror shows and thrill rides you could want: But don't just take my word for it. Here's another view of a day out in Brighton:
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2011 17:33:11 GMT
Completely fabulous, Patrick. I absolutely love Misery Bear. I confess that I have never had a high opinion of most British sweets (what's with those stripey horrible colourful square things that are called 'all sorts' or some such?), but you have confirmed it forever with the rocks and the 'all day breakfast.' I need a bit more documentation about the wobbly titties and the sugar mice, however.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Apr 26, 2011 17:49:31 GMT
Is Brighton like this all through the "warm" season?
I remember rock candy from when I was a little kid. I liked it a lot, but it didn't exist in Canada.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2011 18:37:20 GMT
Brighton is one of my favorite sea-side areas. It's been years since I've been there. The last time a friend took us on his speedboat. Many good memories attached to this town for me. Really good photos, Patrick.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on May 1, 2011 0:11:19 GMT
This was really fun, Patrick ~~ thanks! My mental image of Brighton, formed from old novels, is of sedate Edwardians promenading with something like the first picture in the background. But it's really & truly a beach town, isn't it, with all the delightful guilty pleasures that go along with that. Is the stuff that's not rock candy -- the "breakfasts" and all -- salt water taffy? How do they get the letters inside the rock candy? cranes that never pick up the cuddly toy True story -- When a friend of mine was in high school, he had a dream one night about giant cranes and something soft. When he got up the next morning, his dad tossed him a stuffed animal, saying he'd been by the arcade & won it in the crane pick-up. Is that a regular park around the Pavilion, or a botanical garden? The whole place looks much nicer than many beach towns catering to weekenders.
|
|
|
Post by lola on May 1, 2011 1:37:52 GMT
Nice, Patrick. We really liked Brighton, an easy train ride from Victoria Station, and this revives my memories. The beach is smooth round pebbles, and I got to stretch out soaking up the heat while a tuba player on stilts played a Scott Joplin tune. Thanks for this.
Love that story, bixa. There's a regular largish city park next to the Royal Pavilion.
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on May 1, 2011 9:47:59 GMT
I don't know salt water raffy - as I understand it, rock is just sugar and (usually peppermint) flavouring, with colourings and setting agents to make it set hard. It's made up as a very large cylinder (with the lettering in coloured sugar), then the whole think is stretched and extruded through a machine to get it down to the size it's sold in. Or it's just moulded into all the different shapes (I notice the comedy false teeth of my childhood weren't available).
I don't think you need Lithuanian to work out what's going on here:
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on May 1, 2011 9:48:39 GMT
Beg pardon:
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on May 2, 2011 1:08:34 GMT
Well, don't want to derail the thread away from the topic of Brighton, but here's why I'm confused: This is what I know as rock candy: And this is taffy:
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on May 2, 2011 13:33:24 GMT
British rock manufacturers use that sort of machine to mix and stretch out the basic paste. Your rock candy is allowed to form crystals, whereas the British version creates a malleable paste from the syrup: a clear coloured version is used to form the letters, which are built into an opaque white paste with a coloured external coating, before it's all squeezed/stretched out and allowed to set into hard sticks. But it's probably more or less the same basic sort of mixture.
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on May 2, 2011 13:41:09 GMT
Bixa, a lot of resorts either started out like that, or quickly found a neighbouring resort developing for the more genteel trade. So Hastings has St Leonards, Blackpool has Lytham St Annes, Southend has Leigh-on-Sea, and so on. Brighton has its posh areas (even more so in recent years, as it has developed into a university city), but its genteel neighbour is Hove, famous for the way pretentious people would say, if someone thought they lived in Brighton, "Hove, actually" (punningly adapted for a certain film title).
|
|
|
Post by imec on May 2, 2011 13:59:29 GMT
Terrific patrick! Brought back fond memories of days out to Blackpool as a youngster.
(You don't by chance have a pic of one of those shops that sells every tacky souvenir you could imagine and more that you couldn't, do you? Or one of the bucket and spade shops?)
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on May 2, 2011 19:44:20 GMT
I didn't see one of those. Buckets and spades would be wasted on Brighton's pebbles, and today's sophisticated tastes wouldn't go for the old-fashioned sort of china ornament souvenirs. The unsophisticated would probably be happy with "You plonker" rock.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 3, 2011 12:28:15 GMT
Thanks for sharing your 'day at the seaside' Patrick, I've not been to Brighton must say it looks far more up market than the east coast resorts in Lincolnshire! September last year: OH strapped our bikes to the car and we headed off to the east coast for the day. We parked Huttoft 5 miles south of Mablethorpe, then cycled along a very sandy cycle path to Mablethorpe. The weather was wonderful, perfect for cycling! We sat on a bench overlooking the beach and the sea to eat scrummy fish and chips for lunch and to people watch! ;D There is mile after mile of lovely sandy beaches on the east coast of Lincolnshire, hardly any one on the beaches we passed though - just a few dog walkers. Mablethorpe: Beach Huts - there must be well over 200 of them: 2 of them really amused me and OH ;D : and more sandy beaches:
|
|
|
Post by onlymark on May 3, 2011 13:38:16 GMT
Jeez Rita, what memories. Mablethorpe was my holiday destination every year for two weeks when I was a kid. We one time went to 'Jinglebells' and made frequent day trips to Skeggy and get lunch from Chip Pan Alley. Am I making sense to you?
It brings it all back. Spending hours digging in the sand, flying kites with my Grandad (he had a caravan there), freezing my knackers off in the sea etc etc.....
|
|
|
Post by imec on May 3, 2011 16:42:02 GMT
I didn't see one of those. Buckets and spades would be wasted on Brighton's pebbles, and today's sophisticated tastes wouldn't go for the old-fashioned sort of china ornament souvenirs. The unsophisticated would probably be happy with "You plonker" rock. I get the sense Brighton is somewhat more sophisticated than good old Blackpool.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 3, 2011 16:54:27 GMT
Jeez Rita, what memories. Mablethorpe was my holiday destination every year for two weeks when I was a kid. We one time went to 'Jinglebells' and made frequent day trips to Skeggy and get lunch from Chip Pan Alley. Am I making sense to you? It brings it all back. Spending hours digging in the sand, flying kites with my Grandad (he had a caravan there), freezing my knackers off in the sea etc etc..... Yes you are making perfect sense to me onlymark! ;D And yes the sea seems to take for ever to warm up on the east coast..... My OH proposed to me on Skeggy beach in 1971 by the way and would you believe we went back there to celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary! ;D As a child I remember going to Cleethorpes on the train from my home town Worksop (Nottinghamshire) at least once every summer, what a treat that was!
|
|
|
Post by onlymark on May 3, 2011 17:37:52 GMT
Do you know Carlton in Lindrick? I lived there for a few years. Turn left off the Worksop to Tickhill Road, the A60, into the more modern part of the village and I lived a hundred yards or so up on the left. What about Mr Straw's House in Worksop? Ever visit it?
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 4, 2011 15:16:58 GMT
Yes I do know Carlton in Lindrick Mark, I used to go horse riding there when I was a teenager, as for Mr Straw's House visiting it is on my 'things to do list'.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on May 8, 2011 17:00:09 GMT
I have never been to Brighton... or Blackpool, but when I saw Bhaji on the Beach, I swore that I would go to Blackpool some day.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on May 10, 2011 5:31:00 GMT
Bixa, a lot of resorts either started out like that, or quickly found a neighbouring resort developing for the more genteel trade. So Hastings has St Leonards, Blackpool has Lytham St Annes, Southend has Leigh-on-Sea, and so on. Brighton has its posh areas (even more so in recent years, as it has developed into a university city), but its genteel neighbour is Hove, famous for the way pretentious people would say, if someone thought they lived in Brighton, "Hove, actually" (punningly adapted for a certain film title). Thanks, Patrick. I love that kind of "social insight" as it comes in handy when in reading or watching movies. Misery Bear (poor Misery Bear!) is on a gravel beach. Is that what "shingle" is? Also, in your third photo in the OP, it looks to be the same kind of beach -- true?
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on May 10, 2011 7:39:23 GMT
Yup. To me "gravel" is rather smaller stones (and consistently so, usually pre-sorted to lay on garden paths), where "shingle" is the random collection of whatever the sea throws up. I don't think we use "gravel" for beaches.
And Brighton is nearly all shingle, for some reason. I don't know if Hove, being posh, has managed to magic up some sand.
|
|
|
Post by cheerypeabrain on May 10, 2011 17:28:52 GMT
Glorious images Patrick, Brighton is an incredible place...haven't been for years and years...you brought back lots of memories of my mis-spent yoof.... ;D
What do you think of the Brighton Pavillion?...I went around the place with my mouth open, fascinated and horrified at the same time..soooo OTT... ;D splendid....
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Sept 25, 2011 13:43:39 GMT
Patrick - I have been to Brighton twice and thoroughly enjoyed both visits. We are looking for a day trip to the seaside which may serve up some local fish caught off-shore. If I say Whitstable, Herne Bay, or Margate, would I be way off target? What about Felixstowe or even further - Southwold?
Just looking for a day at the seaside that isn't 'tacky' with half the shops closed down or pretty ramshackle. This is for late May 2012.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2011 16:15:14 GMT
We need Patrick to post more reports here. I have to confess that it tires out my index finger enormously to have to click on his blog to see what he is up to.
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Sept 26, 2011 7:54:44 GMT
I agree! As long as he doesn't tell me to go to Harry Ramsden's for a cod & chips I find cod tasteless and the batter just too much for the brain.... even if fish is brain food ;D
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on Sept 27, 2011 17:27:31 GMT
I'm no great expert on fish, with or without chips, but Whitstable and Southwold have a general reputation of being a bit more upmarket as resorts, and Whitstable in particular has its oysters and associated activities. It's also easier to get to by train from London.
Margate is trying to regenerate itself with culture-related investment and the like, but still has the reputation of having a .tacky side, and I would guess has plenty of exactly what tod is trying to avoid. Herne Bay is its posher relation, but I don't think it or Broadstairs (another possibility) has a particularly foodie reputation.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2011 17:31:45 GMT
Seaside towns need a tacky element. In fact, I demand it!
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on Sept 28, 2011 13:11:14 GMT
Thanks for that, but it doesn't compare with your observations of Paris. I am in the throes of working up something on a couple of local markets. In the meantime, a technical thingie to help with those finger-clicks - I use www.netvibes.com as an aggregated display of RSS feeds for most of the boards and blogs I visit often (I can't work out a simple way to get new Any Port posts to appear in a simple RSS feed, though).
|
|
|
Post by tod2 on Sept 28, 2011 14:13:15 GMT
Yes, definitely want to avoid major tacky which we experienced in Northern Ireland in a seaside town called Port Stewart (next door to Port Rush and near Giants Causeway). Not only was it quite ugly, I ate the worst fish 'n chips in my entire life there Looking for quaint and charming if that possible.... If we can get to Whitstable easily by train (tips welcome always Patrick) then I think we can take a bus into Canterbury for a few hours before heading back to London.
|
|