Southwold 17/10/04

Famous for its beer and pier, Southwold is rumoured to enjoy more column inches in the national broadsheet newspapers than anywhere else outside London. So Mike Sherburn wanted to find out what all the fuss is about.

Where is it:

Southwold is about 10 miles south of Lowestoft, on the North Sea coast and by the River Blyth. It is a five-mile run from the A12 at Blythburgh.

What makes it stand out?

The lighthouse, painted white, towers over cliff-top terraced houses and the recently-rebuilt pier sticks out from the promenade. Aside from the landmarks, which also include the green-roofed St Edmund’s Church, it is the sense of time having stopped that seems to bring out so many visitors. It is also well known for high property prices, with beach huts fetching up to £40,000 and houses beyond the reach of most people living in north Suffolk. Recently, flamboyant Lowestoft rockers The Darkness quipped that they now earned enough to buy a place in Southwold.

What else is on offer?

There is no shortage of options for a wide range of tastes and flavours in the town. Different people will recommend establishments ranging from the Lord Nelson to the Swan Hotel or Dutch Barn Restaurant.
A selection of alternatives include the Harbour Kiosk on Ferry Road and Buckenham Coffee House on High Street.
High Street also has a rather grand post office, an art gallery and a host of specialist boutiques selling everything from house signs to ornamental clocks. And keep your eyes peeled – the town has a phenomenal population-to-celebrity ratio with crime writer PD James among its famous residents.

A little bit of history?

It could be said that history is mostly what Southwold is about. But despite the presence of Southwold Museum, visitors are often less interested in learning about the past and more interested in experiencing it as the town seems at times to be locked in a perpetual post-war day-tripper haze. The biggest historical influence at the moment is the Halesworth-Southwold railway branch line, which closed in 1929. A campaign to reinstate it has been met by a civil demonstration by some residents last year who claimed extra tourists could over-run the town in summer and don’t want the old-style resort to become just a tourist attraction. But, given the mid-20th century atmosphere, it could be argued Southwold is already a kind of accidental 1950s theme park.

What is it like now?

The quiet beach heralds an impressive and colourful line of beach huts, the names of which became the subject of a book published last year. Big-name neighbours include Love Actually writer-director Richard Curtis in Walberswick and visitors, such as Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench, go almost unnoticed by residents who prefer to leave them alone rather than cause a scene.

Southwold Beach Huts