The British seaside spirit lives on – but it is where political tides can turn

I’ve enjoyed trips to Blackpool all my life, so the summer before last I decided to give its east coast equivalent a try. Off to Scarborough we went. Less gaudy and with fewer donkeys, there was still all the fun of strolling along the prom-prom-prom, spending pennies in the arcades. There was even a brass band playing tiddly-om-pom-pom, as the Scarborough Jazz Festival was in full swing.

Scarborough claims to be the first holiday resort in the world, welcoming visitors since 1626. It may be towerless but has instead the imperious, imperial Grand Hotel looming over the seafront, where we stayed the night. Once the biggest hotel in Europe, its original plumbing allowed guests to fill their baths with either fresh or seawater, and so the apocryphal story goes – though probably not one to boast about – Hitler earmarked it as his post-invasion HQ. The grandeur it must once have dripped with now seems impossible to stop crumbling away, even if everybody suddenly decided to staycation there.

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After a long day, mostly spent collecting prize tokens that only amounted to a squishy eyeball bouncy ball, we headed back to the beached behemoth, down a Shining-esque corridor to our room. As soon as we turned off the light, a slow scraping sound could be heard through the wall. Like a bed being moved, if the bed was somehow being shunted from the floor to the ceiling. 

Hoping noisy neighbours wouldn’t keep us awake all night, we fell asleep. It was only in the morning that we realised there was no room beyond the wall, we were at the far end of the building and the hotel was a notorious residence of ghostly guests who didn’t know the meaning of checking out.

In short, I loved my weekend in Scarborough. You can’t beat a holiday at home, which more of us than normal will be doing this summer thanks to aeroplane fuel shortages and a hesitation to fly towards Iranian airspace.

A similar staycation boom followed pandemic lockdowns, but the habit of holidaying at home didn’t stick. Since 2022, the number of nights spent in UK tourist resorts has fallen by a third, spending by a quarter – down £4.6 billion, according to analysis by the New Economics Foundation.

People do realise that it is nice to be beside the seaside, and in this week’s Big Issue we examine the impact an increase in holiday lets and second-home ownership has had on coastal populations.

Few settings can bring out Britishness in quite the same way. Just ask the eminent Roger McGough who’s leading a project from the Southbank Centre, placing a Poet in Every Port (well, 11 of them). The poets tell us how language and location have shaped their lives. The impact of seaside towns is clear to any visitor. The Clacton coast must have made an impression on Nigel Farage who became MP there and who now may – or may not be – a frequent visitor. Areas on the edge are where political tides can turn. 

The paint on the piers may be a little flaky, the art deco monuments to amusement a little faded, but the charm of the seaside still shines bright. Nowhere else can you step into the glory days of our past; whether the golden age ever actually existed or is just a figment of our collective imagination, these places make it real.

Although I might not rush back to the room unknowingly double-booked in perpetuity by someone in purgatory, if you take a staycation this summer, you’ll enjoy it so much you may never want to leave. Ever.

Steven MacKenzie is editor of Big Issue.Read more of his writing here.

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