Out and about in Lowestoft

On a beautiful day in February we had a wander along our beach down to the harbour, just under a mile's walk north. A good deal of Victorian Lowestoft is still standing and was developed by Samuel Morton Peto - architect, engineer, MP, landowner and close pal of Queen Victoria - together with his accomplished designer John Thomas (who I think did most of the work, though Peto seems to get most of the credit!) This is a view of Wellington Esplanade, a great terrace with wonderfully restored gardens in front. They were built in the mid 1850s as seaside retreats and villa residences for the notable families and merchants of the region. Nowadays they are a mixture of B&Bs, flats and the odd family house and holiday home.

A bit further north and further from where we live is Marine Parade, in the background. Our doctor's is right at the end. They didn't start out having a sea view though, and had been dwarfed by grand seafront villas at the time, but these suffered bombardment and air attacks in the first and second world wars. The gaping space is known today as the Royal Plain and becomes the temporary home for the annual Lowestoft Airshow as well as a travelling fair that pitches up every so often.

Further down at the harbour is Neptune's son Triton, accredited to John Thomas! Lowestoft has just two of these grotty arcades that you can see in the background (contrasting nicely with our southern and northern neighbours Southwold and Great Yarmouth which have none and millions, respectively). Note that poor deprived Alastair is looking longingly at the Bob Builder ride there, which I never him go on unless visitors come!

Gregor loves tying things together at the moment with his special version of knot, and when he found this bit of old rope on the beach on the walk down, he was that excited you'd have thought it was a treasure chest that had been washed up. I don't know what he was trying to do...perhaps he thought it would reach as far as the fountains.

Here he was trying to see what would happen to his spade when he placed it over the sporadic jet of water from the fountain, but I missed the crucial moment.

When we finally got him away from his game the Lowestoft lifeboat pulled into harbour back from a training exercise. As usual Gregor didn't miss the opportunity to try on the tired and friendly lifeboatman's jacket.

A view from the pier looking south down the coast to Kessingland.


Oh, a footnote. On a recent trip to Great Yarmouth I noticed this bright and right on the high street one-stop-shop for getting back to employment, generously funded by the EU's European Social Fund.

Empty!