Day Trips from London

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
3417458335_62e7b4fae0.jpg

What a huge crab! Nearly as big as your mum's, etc. etc.

Ahem.

Yeah, you don't have to go south from London to enjoy the seaside - there are meant to be lots of 'hidden gem' type spots in Essex and Sussex, although I don't know that part of the world myself, and during the summer they're probably going to less busy than the more obvious holiday places on the south coast - Cornwall, Devon, Sussex (IoW too, I guess).

Worth checking out if you're into marshes, dunes and bird life - I know Rich likes the birds (hur hur).
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"That's fundamentally what Dungeness looks like."
I'm interested in these things though

http://www.davesnowdon.com/blog/sound-mirrors-lade-pit-dungeness

"Bexhill looks great, having researched it."
The pavilion is amazing - the rest of it is awful. Well, I guess you can walk along the front and see some fairly interesting buildings that haven't decided if they want to be houses or boats but apart from that it's literally just old folks' homes and charity shops that recycle the possessions of their denizens back into society when they die.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Those sound mirrors look bizarre - like some kind of concrete stone henge and probably equally inexplicable to any future civilisation.

listeningdevices.jpg


Aerial%20Sound%20Mirrors%20and%20lakes.jpg


Rear_of_30_foot_Sound_Mirror_Dungeness.jpg


Seems insane that anyone could think that they were gonna work but apparently they - almost - did.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Margate is wicked, go to Sundowners. Whitstable is twee but posh food nice. Canvey Island is a shithole. I saw an old person die at a bus stop in Bexhill once.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Margate is pretty awful, but then I grew up in Kent, and it might well have some art deco stuff. Whitstable is a bit chi-chi these days, I hear, all oyster bars and the like. Herne Bay I associate with driving tests, but it looked pretty grim even aside from that. Folkestone's probably my favourite place on the Kent coast - cliffs, faded glamour, definitely a cut above.
Yeah, Margate is pretty grim, Ramsgate and Broadstairs are marginally nicer IIRC. Deal is quite good - a little english seaside town with a stony beach, a pier with a cafe at the end and north easterlies that could cut diamond. The ideal time of year to go there is about Christmas.

Herne Bay is a non-starter apart from having a second hand record shop called B-Side the Sea Side. It never had any glamour to fade as far as I can tell. Whitstable is beyond chi-chi, but it is quite pretty and there's a pub right on the shingle called the Neptune that does really good sheps beers and excellent crab sandwiches.

The only time I've been to Folkstone was for a chess tournament there when I was about 15. That was in an old hotel, though, and pretty much chimes with your description.

Where in Kent are you from?

Other - would love to go to Romney Marsh and / or Dungeness, haven't been since I was a kid (apart from a quick trip to Rye) and I think I'd appreciate it more now.

Would also like to see more of North Essex and Suffolk - real MR James Country. Maldon is good with the statue of Brithnoth, Walton on the Naze will be familiar to Swallows and Amazons fans as the setting of Secret Water. I still need to get to Snape and Aldeburgh. There was a great K-Punk post from ages back about weird WWII era stuff on the suffolk coastline. North Norfolk is also good, but a bit of a hike for a day trip.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
All this East Anglia chat is making me feel ashamed, as a confirmed ale nerd and admirer of Cool Old Shit, that I haven't been to the St. Peter's brewery in Suffolk yet. According to their blurb it's in a mediaeval hall which presumably stands on the site of a Saxon hall as it still has a mote dug to keep out Vikings. Sweet.

Also, the nearest town is called Bungay. This has nothing at all do with my wanting to visit the place.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Margate is pretty awful"
"Margate is wicked"
"Yeah, Margate is pretty grim"
Who/what to believe...

"Would also like to see more of North Essex and Suffolk - real MR James Country. Maldon is good with the statue of Brithnoth, Walton on the Naze will be familiar to Swallows and Amazons fans as the setting of Secret Water. I still need to get to Snape and Aldeburgh. There was a great K-Punk post from ages back about weird WWII era stuff on the suffolk coastline"
I guess MR James was always lurking at the back of my mind with this thread - certainly when thinking about the countryside. And the sound mirrors have piqued my interest in weird WWII era stuff - do you have any links with pictures of this kind of thing?
I read all the Swallows and Amazons books when I was very young, remind what happens in Secret Water? Which characters is it?
 
All this East Anglia chat is making me feel ashamed, as a confirmed ale nerd and admirer of Cool Old Shit, that I haven't been to the St. Peter's brewery in Suffolk yet. According to their blurb it's in a mediaeval hall which presumably stands on the site of a Saxon hall as it still has a mote dug to keep out Vikings. Sweet.

Also, the nearest town is called Bungay. This has nothing at all do with my wanting to visit the place.

I've been there around a dozen times, it was a couple of miles from my ex's parents' ranch. Food is good, beer is obviously excellent. There's an ancient-looking tapestry in the main hall. All the furniture is crooked. Lots of knick knacks and heirlooms scattered about. There's a moat too and toilets just that little bit too far from the main building to be entirely non-spooky late on a Winter's night.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Who/what to believe...


I guess MR James was always lurking at the back of my mind with this thread - certainly when thinking about the countryside. And the sound mirrors have piqued my interest in weird WWII era stuff - do you have any links with pictures of this kind of thing?
Ah, this is what I was talking about:
http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/009453.html
http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/009474.html

I read all the Swallows and Amazons books when I was very young, remind what happens in Secret Water? Which characters is it?
It's the one where they go south from Felixstowe to a big sort of tidal estuary thing with lots of islands and mudflats. And, needless to say, spend a week or so camping and sailing and exploring it.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Ah, I've read those K-Punk things before I think. Forgot about Dunwich - not much to see there though I guess these days or am I wrong?
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
Rich, if you are into those sound mirrors definately go to Dungeness; no where is better suited to be their home. The whole ares is beautifully bleak, with discarded fishermen's huts dotted about, whilst the nuclear power station looms over you.

Derek Jarman's house/garden is there too.

Take a camera. 'Tis a great place.
 

luka

Well-known member
my mum goes to bradwell chapel every year for new years eve. hangs about there in the dark. a friend of mine is from nearby, tollesbury or something it called. typical esturine essex. very atmospheric. flat. almost featureless. i think i've banged on about th wealth of day trrips from london on here before. whitstable is chichi but ive been going there since i was a baby and i will always have a soft soft for it. th old neptune on a windy day.... and if you have a car all the surrounding places are good too. so much of kent and essex is just wonderful for day trips. dungenoness, frinton, leigh on sea, all the places people have already mentioned really...
dunwich , yeah not much to see. only went there once, cos of benjy b from on here. he said he was going to do the dunwich dynamo so i said i would then he chickened out but i done it with some mates and my little brother. its really fun.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
The only time I've been to Folkstone was for a chess tournament there when I was about 15. That was in an old hotel, though, and pretty much chimes with your description.

Where in Kent are you from?

No way! I think I was at a chess tournament in Folkestone when I was 15....ah, sweet teenage rebellion...went back there later to teach for a bit, and it is a nice place.

I'm from Sittingbourne, thought by one 'celebrity' bouncer to be the scariest town he'd ever worked in. I can see why...although, being a complete wuss, I avoided the scarier pubs...

Edit: of course, Sheerness on a Saturday night is probably scarier....
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Alex - oyster bars in Whitstable's case...

My views on Broadstairs are coloured by the fact that I vomited all the way there in the car when I was a kid. It wasn't very enjoyable after that.
 
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