title Faded Seaside Glamour: A Weekend in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk - 29th May 2022 intro As a sort-of birthday thing, Isobel sorts us out with a few days in Great Yarmouth at the Burlington Palm Court Hotel on North Drive, just a few minutes walk from the main drag along the sea front. Great Yarmouth is something of a paradox: said to be one of the last "un-gentrified" coastal towns, it's fairly rough-and-ready in places but also contains an impressive - if not unique - collection of early 20th century public buildings, including the Empire, Hippodrome, Royalty and Windmill Theatres, the Victorian Winter Gardens, Edwardian Venetian Waterways and even the odd public toilet, all from around 1900-1910. None of them have been tarted up though, and the brown of their darkened tiles looks at bit at odds with the neon lights that surround them. There are also a number of impressive houses around the town as well as up North Drive, in-between the gaudy amusement arcades and 1970s in-fill. The place also has more fish-and-chip cafés than seems strictly necessary, but we manage to find a nice restaurant at the Ocean Hotel. As well as the architectural appreciation, we also do the Pleasure Beach, which actually turns out to be quite good value given that we do the dodgems at least four times, and later in the evening there's a special bonus when we accidentally catch the Signal on Sea art installation. We didn't actually realise what it was at the time as we go for a quick walk on the beach in front of the hotel and discover a number of long-throw tannoy speakers set up around on the beach playing ethereal music. It's quite cool when we find certain spots where the sound seems to sync up nicely, like a surround-sound system, and there's one centre-spot where a beach flower seems to be enjoying things too. The next day, the dudes from the Netherlands are over to uninstall the speakers and the hundreds of metres of wiring that go with it. imgp0105 Grandad heads off to Cafeye imgp0107 Harry's had enough of birthday cakes already imgp0110 Isobel's singing group has a practice imgp0111 There's a plant sale on at Brome Village Hall imgp0116 Harry holds up a raffle ticket imgp0118 Isobel scopes out some plants imgp0119 Harry makes a bid for freedom imgp0121 More plant-sale action imgp4242 We head into town for the first time imgp4256 Fred lines up at crazy golf imgp4262 The gang play another crazy golf hole imgp4266 A late-Victorian toilet block imgp4269 A horse and carriage trots around imgp4273 Harry hurls himself off the wall imgp4286 The derelict Winter Gardens imgp4300 Another view of the Winter Gardens imgp4307 The remains of an old pier imgp4309 Looking back to the "strip" imgp4312 We do sandcastles on the beach imgp4318 Harry gets buried in sand imgp4327 Isobel checks her phone imgp4336 A giant ice-cream cone gets hauled off imgp4337 Under Wellington Pier imgp4341 An optical illusion on a prison wall imgp4345 There's a pile of discarded amusement rides imgp4348 The gang peer through holes at a model village imgp4350 Great Yarmouth: the sign tells it like it is imgp4355 The Winter Gardens sign imgp4364 The derelict Nelson Hotel imgp4368 The boys are in the amusement arcade imgp4372 Fred wins some more tickets imgp4376 Outside the Silver Slipper imgp4382 There's a Britannia above the street chaos imgp4383 The grand Empire Theatre imgp4384 Our bottle of wine in the Ocean Café imgp4393 Outside Café Ocean imgp4395 A derelict basement entrance imgp4404 Fred gets a ball down as we play pool imgp0008 The hotel's restaurant has a funky 1960s ceiling imgp0009 The boys do breakfast imgp0003 Isobel reads a book by the swimming pool imgp0129 Fred and Harry in the hotel swimming pool imgp4408 The Palm Court Hotel imgp4409 Some impressive hotels on North Drive imgp4410 Harry roams around in the Venetian Waterways imgp4417 Red Hot Pokers in the Venetian Gardens imgp4420 Isobel's on the phone imgp4426 Former shop units imgp4431 Regent Road is fairly busy imgp4433 The Empire theater imgp4435 A horse and cart imgp4439 The 1908 Windmill Theater imgp4448 A spinning ride at the Pleasure Beach imgp4451 Isobel and Fred up in the air imgp4470 Fred, Harry and Isobel on a Disk-o-coaster imgp4472 Fred and Isobel imgp4474 Harry queues up for donuts imgp4478 Fred in a giant deck chair imgp4483 Harry and Fred in Leo's imgp4486 Fred's got a milkshake imgp4518 Harry does hook-a-duck imgp4522 In the hall of mirrors imgp4526 Fred spins around in the dodgems imgp4528 Harry and Fred finish their bumper-car ride imgp4533 Roller Coaster: says it like it is imgp4539 Fred, Harry and Isobel on the roller coaster imgp4550 Zoltar speaks imgp4553 Another horse and buggy does the rounds imgp4564 The former Sailors' Home imgp4572 Even the public bogs are impressive imgp4574 Modern building next to the bowling greens imgp4576 We walk past the Potters Rock Factory imgp4580 Regent Road is heaving imgp4581 A little bit of 1923 hidden away on Regent Road imgp4584 The now-derelict Great Yarmouth Market imgp4585 Great Yarmouth Market imgp4589 The pretty Fishermen's Hospital, built in 1706 imgp4592 Anna Sewell's cottage, author of Black Beauty imgp4594 Great Yarmouth Minster imgp4596 The huge aisles of Yarmouth Minster imgp4599 Isobel roams around imgp4602 The impressive, but non-functional, organ imgp4605 The 1876 William Hill organ imgp4609 The Altar and nave of Yarmouth Minster imgp4613 The RAF motto and crest in stained glass imgp4614 Multiple reflections of the minster in a window imgp4615 A herring gull with attitude perches on a gravestone imgp4616 People stroll along the tree-lined avenue imgp4624 A bold squirrel clings to a tree imgp4626 Another impressive building, from 1901 imgp4628 The atheletics track just behind our hotel imgp4631 Harry makes a sculpture out of coasters imgp4633 Fred and Isobel play cards imgp4638 Harry tries to explain Yu Gi Oh! imgp4645 Fred's volcano does an eruption imgp4647 One of the "Signal on Sea" speakers imgp4650 Isobel roams around the dunes imgp4654 Yarmouth from the dunes imgp4657 The flowers at the epicentre of Signal on Sea imgp4662 Isobel on the promenade imgp4665 The Signal dudes retrieve miles of cable imgp4668 A boat sails past Scroby windfarm imgp4669 Harry faces up to the sea imgp4673 A bit of sea holly, with added snails imgp4674 Another solitary yellow flower imgp4676 Harry, Isobel and Fred in the dunes imgp4678 A digger hauls away some speakers imgp4680 Isobel on the little train imgp4687 A view from the big ferris wheel imgp4690 Looking up "the strip" from the air imgp4692 A view into an older Great Yarmouth imgp4693 The Windmill Theatre imgp4696 The Winter Gardens, and the Pleasure Beach imgp4699 The Royal Hotel's crest imgp4705 Harry's not too keen on being up high imgp4710 The closed-down Showboat imgp4712 The Barking Smack pub - an original name at least imgp4713 Rogers Fish and Chips, and the Hippodrome imgp4717 Isobel scopes out the Hippodrome box office imgp4718 Yarmouth Hippodrome imgp4723 The old St. John's church imgp4725 An old Lacons pub sign imgp4729 Harry in Subway imgp4731 The Goldrush amusement arcade imgp4735 The old Royalty Theatre imgp4739 The awesomely derelict Iron Duke pub imgp4741 The 1930s Iron Duke pub on Jellicoe Road imgp4749 A cool old Gasometer down by the docks imgp4750 A child's coat hangs disturbingly on railings imgp4752 Gorleston beach imgp4753 The wide beach is empty in places imgp4757 The Pier Hotel, as featured in the film Yesterday imgp4760 Fred and Isobel near the Pier Hotel imgp4762 The very grand Gorleston Pavilion Theater imgp4764 An prosaicly-named amusements arcade imgp4766 The curious Gorleston lighthouse imgp4769 Harry legs it along the promenade