A weekend in... Lowestoft

We visit one of East Anglia’s best-kept secrets to see how its Coast Award-winning regeneration scheme is shaping up for the future. By Stephen Emms

  Photo: www.lovelowestoft.co.ukIt's a little-known fact that famed Victorian architect Samuel Peto's dream was for Lowestoft, the most easterly town in the UK, to rival Brighton. But it's not hard to see why. Lowestoft possesses an undeniable beauty, yet, unlike its swanky southern rival, is still an understated place. Its story is one of prosperity from fishing, followed by Victorian investment and post-war decline, but this has been reversed by a £14 million ‘Sunrise Scheme', whose public art and piazzas won ‘Best Regeneration Project' in the coast Awards in 2007. Peto's dream may yet come true.

 

Saturday morning

10am A vintage morning
I start the weekend by exploring the historic high street, with its 15th-century cottages, Georgian merchant houses and Triangle Market Place. Well-placed plaques, dotted at regular intervals, fill me in on some remarkable history - including tales of John Wesley, Cromwell and Dickens - and there are dozens of independent shops selling everything from bric-a-brac and stamp collections to flowers and second-hand books. After visiting Lowestoft Arts Centre, in the Triangle, there's time for me to grab a latte at the stylish Vintage Café (101 High Street, 01502 516377, www.vintagecafe.co.uk), a deli and brasserie with wood floors, retro wallpaper, comfy sofas, low-hanging lights - and some gorgeous, hand-selected vintage clothes.

 

Saturday pm

1pm Fish and chips on the pier
I head through town to the focus of the regeneration - the Royal Plain, a European piazza with ‘Sunrise' mural and interactive fountain. Its 74 jets shriek in summer to the squeals of drenched kids in swimsuits, but are rather quieter on this chilly day. I've picked up a Samuel Peto guide at the Tourist Information Centre, so from South Pier I wander along the groined seafront, past the elegant Wellington Esplanade built by Peto, to Claremont Pier, where Captain Nemo's Restaurant (01502 563799, www.captainnemos-lowestoft.co.uk) serves the best fish and chips in town: take your pick from fried, grilled or poached. I opt for a takeaway: what finer pleasure is there than devouring flakes of foot-long fish in the blustery sea breeze?

3pm Picture-perfect scenery
You can't visit Lowestoft without exploring the best art gallery in town, so I carry on battling the wall of wind along the esplanade, while admiring South Beach's award-winning sands, its colourful beach huts, hairy dunes and the manicured Kensington Gardens, until I reach Pakefield (a mile or so from Claremont Pier). There's time to pause over the scrubland beach with a bracing pint at The Jolly Sailors, a friendly pub and restaurant on top of the cliffs (01502 561398, www.thejollysailors.co.uk), before heading a hundred metres further to the Ferini Art Gallery (27-29 All Saints Road, 01502 562222, www.ferini.talktalk.net), where local artists display their work over two floors. Richard Dack's evocative oil paintings and etchings of the area are particularly worth seeing.

 

7.30pm Waterfront dining
Lowestoft can't yet boast a glut of top restaurants but innovative Go Fish (School Road, 01502 583596, www.gofishrestaurant.co.uk) is well worth a visit. A waterfront eaterie in a working boatyard, it is the brainchild of June Mummery. I look out at boats on stilts, while sampling whitebait and mackerel ‘so fresh it's just jumped out of there,' as June says, pointing to the moon-reflected water.   

 

Sunday am

10am Bleak beauty
Ness Point (above) is Britain's most easterly outcrop, and an atmospheric start to a chilly Sunday. I wander across Belle Vue Park on Yarmouth Road and, after popping into the Aladdin's cave of the Maritime Museum (01502 561963), cut across the wilderness, with its old netting posts, until I reach the Sea Wall promenade, built in 1947. Holding my nose as I pass the hum of the Birds Eye factory, I soon encounter the circular grid that signifies Ness Point, with distances marked out to cities across the world. It's satisfyingly bleak with only the freighters of cloud, the odd fisherman  and the dark waves for company.

 

Further information

Stay at...
Baytree House is ten minutes' walk from the historic high street and just a moment from the clifftop. A restored Victorian pile, it boasts stripped boards, eclectic period furniture and chandeliers, but what stands out is owner Liz Goldspink's sheer delight in her job. On arrival, there'll be home-made cakes waiting and she bakes a different bread every
day. In summer you can enjoy her award-winning garden. Double B&B from £75 (01502 530315, www.baytreehouselowestoft.co.uk). 

Also try...
For direct sea views, try the traditional Britten House, where composer Benjamin Britten was born and lived until he was 21 (01502 573950, www.brittenhouse.co.uk). Nearby Ivy House is popular but pricey (01502 501353, www.ivyhousecountryhotel.co.uk)

Getting there
Advance train tickets from London cost from £6 one way at www.nationalexpresseastanglia.com.

 

 

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