On Saturday, decided on the spur of the moment to revisit Harwich after a mere 12 year break or so. We set out with the idea of running around the designated Maritime Heritage Trail and, whilst we covered quite a bit of it, it didn’t quite pan out like that in the end….
We parked up just off Wellington Road, made a quick visit to Tourist Information and then after a cursory look round the ‘old town’ we decided to walk along to Dovercourt. Turned out to be a lovely stroll along the coast and on arrival found a lovely coffee shop; we like to live on the edge, so we stopped off there and had coffee, sarnies and cakes – so long to the much needed short coffee stop.
It was also a shock to discover that Dovercourt is the real town centre, albeit a mile or two outside what might be termed the maritime centre. Anyway, although we had by now long abandoned the trail, we still managed to pass by the Low Lighthouse (1818), the Treadwell Crane (1667), Old Custom House (1795), High Lighthouse (1818) and the (in)famous Electric Palace Cinema (1911); unfortunately, the cinema is currently under significant restoration and so it was 99% scaffolding /sheeting and about 1% brick. Not sure how that will affect its claim to be the oldest unaltered purpose built cinema in Britain. Finished off with a beverage at the Old Pier, a hotel that belongs to Milsoms, the same chain as Kesgrave Hall near us. We did notice as we mooched around that the standard price for entry to many of the sites appeared to be £1, which is an added incentive to return.
I can see why many would leave with an unfavourable impression of Harwich. It is a little run down in places and the sites themselves don’t scream ‘visit me’ but, equally, it would cost a fortune to ‘tourist modernise’ the maritime centre and the shabby chic charm could just as easily be lost. Let’s face it, York it isn’t, but we thought it was a very pleasant place to wile away a day or so – and I didn’t even mention the unusual Dovercourt lighthouses, originally built in 1863 (see picture) and which were restored between 1985-1988. To quote Historic England….. “As well as marking a milestone in the history of lighthouse design and in the sequence of navigation aids developed for this important deep water harbour, the Dovercourt Lights, with their memorable design, are a well regarded landscape feature (and landmark) on the Harwich coastline.”