I am of an age where I can remember the fading glory of seaside towns. The children’s parks and paddling pools, the outdoor swimming pools and the dodgy amusement arcades. As a kid in the seventies, my family spent some holidays near and around these towns. Holidays in rented caravans in parks near the sea where it seemed to rain for much of the time. No wonder everyone else was buggering off on cheap holidays to Spain. Though, like most kids, we didn’t care. We paddled in the slightly scummy water in concrete paddling pools near the beach and we built sandcastles in the rain. Went for picnics in the howling wind and ate our sand blasted egg sandwiches. Washing away the grit in our mouths with bottles of lemonade – carefully wiping away the damp sand from around the top first before taking a swig of lukewarm fizziness. We loved it.
While wandering around Whitley Bay I came across the remnants of one of these faded glories down on the lower promenade. There I stumbled over the remains of the children’s paddling pool. Blue edged concrete with a faded aqua blue pool and a puddle of stagnant water sitting in the middle. Oh, how it brought back memories of those holidays from long ago. Traipsing around I found that much of the promenade had been covered with a layer of tarmac. This was now disintegrating to reveal the old slabs laid in patterns that would have once given a jolly holiday feeling to the place.
The Southern Lower Promenade was once a popular spot. Built in 1926 along with the sea wall, it had, as well as the paddling pool, crazy golf, a sand pit and lots of stalls selling various things. Part of the promenade was also transformed into gardens with grassed area, paths, staircases and seating. It remained popular up until the 1980s when it was closed by the council, who deeming it unhygienic, covered a lot of it up in the crumbling tarmac that still defaces it today.
Though now rather an ugly, disfigured spot it seemed popular enough as I walked around, though mainly with people coming to stand by the railings of the sea wall and dodge the huge spraying waves. I took a turn at this game as well until looking out at one wave coming in, I got soaked by the spray of another that had sneaked up upon me. So, deciding to cut my losses I cut back along the cliffs sloping down to the promenade and there I left a Skulferatu in a gap in the rocks there.
The coordinates for the Skulferatu are -
Latitude 55.042111
Longitude -1.436511
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I used the following sources for information on the Southern Lower Promenade –
Rockliffe Remembers – Southern Lower Promenade
