I love Hornsea. I'm not really sure why but I always have. If you've never been it's hardly the most exciting or attractive of seaside resorts. The small town centre, pleasant enough, dwindles away as you approach the coast until you reach a sort of no mans land by the sea. There you'll find a straggly assortment of buildings interspersed by car parks. A few amusement arcades, public toilets, chip shops, a leisure centre.
Finally, a lot of promenade and wall, concrete stopping the whole lot from crumbling into the North Sea, then the beach. Pebbly, flat, straight, bleak. This is the Holderness coast, thirty-odd miles of windswept clay steadily disappearing, year on year. Concrete protecting the towns, the villages less lucky.
It's rarely too busy round here, the attractions too meagre. The beach unending, spacious. That's part of the appeal, no hordes as descend on Scarborough or Whitby. There are people around, but a few minutes walk and it's just you, the sea and the sky.
So we wander up and down the front, and stop for an age to listen to the waves and gaze at tankers far out in the bay. Bliss. Then we try, but fail, 20p a go, to grab a toy from the machine out front of the arcades. Until it's time for chips. One of the chip shops is Sullivan's, I've no idea if it's the best in town but it's where I always go, so Sullivan's it is.
Fish, chips and peas, too much salt and too much vinegar, washed down with fizzy pop. Sat on a bench on the prom, gazing out towards Holland.
The fish and chips were good, though not as good as last time. That's what I thought as I ate them. Flakey, fresh fish, good batter but the chips a little underdone and the peas too thick. But maybe memory doesn't serve me well, the food was probably the same. Perhaps it's the place that I'm remembering favourably. The breeze, the sea, the space and the sky.
8/10
Sullivan's
34-38 New Road
Hornsea
East Yorkshire
HU18 1PW
http://www.yorkshire.com/places/yorkshire-coast/hornsea
Photo by Tom Corser www.tomcorser.com. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 England & Wales (UK) Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.en_GB
Finally, a lot of promenade and wall, concrete stopping the whole lot from crumbling into the North Sea, then the beach. Pebbly, flat, straight, bleak. This is the Holderness coast, thirty-odd miles of windswept clay steadily disappearing, year on year. Concrete protecting the towns, the villages less lucky.
It's rarely too busy round here, the attractions too meagre. The beach unending, spacious. That's part of the appeal, no hordes as descend on Scarborough or Whitby. There are people around, but a few minutes walk and it's just you, the sea and the sky.
So we wander up and down the front, and stop for an age to listen to the waves and gaze at tankers far out in the bay. Bliss. Then we try, but fail, 20p a go, to grab a toy from the machine out front of the arcades. Until it's time for chips. One of the chip shops is Sullivan's, I've no idea if it's the best in town but it's where I always go, so Sullivan's it is.
Fish, chips and peas, too much salt and too much vinegar, washed down with fizzy pop. Sat on a bench on the prom, gazing out towards Holland.
The fish and chips were good, though not as good as last time. That's what I thought as I ate them. Flakey, fresh fish, good batter but the chips a little underdone and the peas too thick. But maybe memory doesn't serve me well, the food was probably the same. Perhaps it's the place that I'm remembering favourably. The breeze, the sea, the space and the sky.
8/10
Sullivan's
34-38 New Road
Hornsea
East Yorkshire
HU18 1PW
http://www.yorkshire.com/places/yorkshire-coast/hornsea
4 comments:
I've lived my life believing Hornsea was in Essex. Another of life's certainties gone.
Definitely in Yorkshire. According to the interweb there's a Hornsea Farm in Essex, but it's not even by the sea. Rubbish!
I went to Sullivan's last year and ate in. It was the damn shizzle. Excellent, crispy batter. Nice tea cake.
A tea cake... not with currents mind.
Can't beat a fish, chip and pea butty in a nice soft tea cake. (No currants of course)
Post a Comment