Littlehampton is a seaside town, I hesitate to say resort, midway along the coast of West Sussex. It has a Heatherwick cafe, a sort-of lighthouse, Britain's longest bench and a lot of crabs. I visited yesterday. [Visit Littlehampton][12 photos]
✉Littlehampton started out as a small fishing community then became a minor port, which does at least give the town more history than Bognor Regis a few miles to the west. In the early 19th century it started attracting cultured seaside visitors, then in 1863 trains arrived and it's now a suburban retirement bolthole. Its station is not interesting.
✉ The high street is called the High Street. Its chief feature is what looks like an old wooden clocktower, except it was actually built for the Millennium using a clockface which had been in storage since the 1920s. The largest plaque on the high street commemorates David and Betty Jones who founded a sports shop at number 7 in 1946.
✉Littlehampton Museum is based in the 18th century Manor House on Church Street and free to enter. Unfortunately on Saturdays it opens at 10.30am and I got there too early. The current special exhibition is Menagerie - Animals from the Archives. If you have a really good idea about the future of the museum you could win £100 in supermarket vouchers.
✉ The town has more than its fair share of Armed Forces veterans. One of them will let you sit on his poppy-encrusted flag-bedecked multi-headlamped scooter outside Bonmarché in return for a donation to a veterans charity. The beacon on the seafront will be lit next week to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
✉ Littlehampton was in receipt of the very first Blue Peter lifeboat, although you won't see it if you look round the station because it was retired in 2016. Opposite is the Look & Sea Heritage Exhibition with its riverside observation tower, which looked like it'd have a great view but it turns out it closed in 2018.
✉ The river here is the Arun, which starts near Horsham and by the time it enters the sea is a deep wide channel a-brim with yachts and cruisers. A passenger ferry used to operate from the town across to the Boat Club and West Beach Nature Reserve but they threw in the towel after the cash-strapped council ended their grant last year.
✉ The big thing to do alongside the Arun is to go crabbing, especially if you're a child. Lines (for dangling) and buckets (for filling) are sold at the Harbour Park amusement park. The sculptural plaques displayed along the harbourside all display fishy recipes, for example for Baked Stuffed Bass and Pollock Fish Cakes.
✉ Littlehampton's East Pier is more a short jetty at the mouth of the river, in fact a brief breakwater. The so-called lighthouse is actually a replacement postwar light tower. It looks like a cotton reel on top of a dart flight, but all in white and with a slot up high for looking out of. Sadly the webcam at the top no longer functions.
✉ The town's lifeguards are very active and have a big quad bike for rumbling over the shingle. Sand appears at lower tides. Littlehampton won Levelling Up cash to rejuvenate its seafront which shoulddeliver a new WC block by the Windmill pub and water play by the Harvester. Currently Union Jacks fly above the shellfish, burger and ice cream kiosks.
✉ The land train operates between the Beach Office and Norfolk Gardens, where you can switch to a proper train on the Littlehampton Miniature Railway. Both charge £3 for a return trip. The LMR opened over the Whitsun weekend in 1948 and is the oldest of the world's six 12¼” gauge railways.
✉ Britain's longestbench faces the promenade and was opened in 2010. It has colourful wooden slats and can seat over 300 people. It's also a bit of a cheat because it intermittently ducks behind litter bins and dips into the tarmac. Also at each end it swirls round manically inside a metal shelter, so perhaps it's more photogenic than practical.
✉ The most striking building in Littlehampton is the East Beach Cafe, designed in 2005 by an upcoming Thomas Heatherwick. It was made by assembling steel ribbons and is meant to resemble a piece of driftwood, although you could also mistake it for a giant rippled turd. If you don't fancy beer battered fish or shredded brisket puff pastry pie then a kiosk at the far end serves simpler fare.
✉ I coupled my visit to Littlehampton with a 13 mile walk so I'm a bit knackered which is why I've only had time to write some words, not add lots of links and photos. If you can see more than one link and more than one photo then I've had a good sleep and come back to finish off the post properly.
