The weird and wonderful Yorkshire seaside town that kept its identity
All summer we are taking the pulse of our most famous traditional seaside towns, examining the efforts being made to regenerate them, and opining on whether they are still worth visiting. This week, Helen Pickles visits Whitby.
Don't panic when you arrive in Whitby and think: 'Where's the beach?!' Follow the west side of the river (the harbour, uniquely on this coast, faces due north), down the slope, turn left and there it is: three glorious miles stretching all the way (tides permitting) to Sandsend. Whitby is compact (people-jams on the streets are not unusual) so seaside-y things – promenades, benches, beaches – are outside the centre.
It came late to the seaside game, compared with Scarborough 20 miles south. Fishing, whaling, ship-building plus a lucrative line in jet-mining (the gemstone is found in the local cliffs) were its mainstays. But it cast envious eyes at Scarborough's growing success and by the late 19th century property developers were building grand terraces of hotels on the west cliff, capitalising on the views across the River Esk to Whitby Abbey on the east cliff headland.
Despite competition from cheap overseas sunshine, Whitby has held its own, albeit with a few pubs and hotels that have seen better days. It has worked its assets to appeal to a broader crowd while not losing the more nostalgic holidaymaker. Saltmoore, for example, just outside town and styling itself a 'wellness sanctuary', opened last November to shake up the seaside hotel scene. A distillery behind the abbey is also due to open next year.
But it's probably Bram Stoker's legacy (the author was inspired to write the Gothic horror, Dracula, while staying in the town in 1890) that kick-started new life in the town with the twice-yearly Goth Weekend. This has led to a stream of festivals and 'weekenders' from Fish and Ships to Northern Soul. The newest, Whitby Lit Fest, debuts this November.
What's it really like?
Ridiculously appealing. Houses tumble down to the harbour; a skeleton of a medieval abbey rears up on one headland, handsome Victorian terraces on the other; boats putter in and out; narrow lanes bulge with shops offering jewellery, fudge, soaps and catch-your-eye knick-knacks. Despite the relentless need to climb up or down steps and steep lanes, the town pulls you in.
'It's a special little place,' muses Helen Calam who, with her husband Rob Watson, runs the quirky La Rosa B&B. 'It's locked in by the [North York] Moors. You can be anything you want to be here. There are a lot of small independent businesses like us.'
True, alongside the historic charm, there's a gaudy, harbourside drag of amusement arcades, tacky shops and food shacks. But it's light-hearted. In Pleasureland, a mum and her goth daughter are feeding two-pence pieces into a machine. 'We always come, and get £5 in change,' explains mum. 'If we win something, fine, and if we don't – it's just a bit of fun.'
Across the road, the black-masted Bark Endeavour – a smaller-scale replica of Captain James Cook's ship (both ships were built in Whitby, where Cook was an apprentice) – is departing, sea shanties on the speakers, for a 20-minute coastal trip. A sign reads: 'Under 2 yr olds, Dogs & Ferrets Free!'
The Captain Cook Museum, in the wharfside house where the apprentice Cook lodged, has absorbing displays including a mind-boggling world map plotting the circuitous routes of his three voyages, lists of ships' stores (19,337 lbs of pickled cabbage, 397 gallons of spirit on 'Resolution') and the ship's surgeon's instruments – including a carving knife for amputations.
Working my way up Church Street towards the abbey is not a speedy process. It's narrow, cobbled, criss-crossed with slow-moving people – and every other shop (so it seems) has glittering displays of Whitby jet jewellery. Only found in an eight-mile stretch of cliffs around Whitby, jet production's hey-day was in Victorian times when there were around 200 factories. 'Now there are only seven manufacturers,' says Sarah Caldwell-Steele of Ebor Jetworks, an atmospheric 17th-century shop, whose jet knowledge is inexhaustible. 'I came here on holiday from York when I was seven, found a piece on the beach, and it became an obsession.'
Only 199 steps and, finally, I'm at the abbey that has hovered in my peripheral vision all day. The ruins of the abbey church are all that remains of the Benedictine monastery (built on an Anglo-Saxon monastery), but they are gloriously Gothic with their soaring pointed arches.
By now, I'm yearning to get near the sea and head across town for a walk along the sea wall, lined with beach chalets. The tide is in and waves are flinging themselves against the wall but that doesn't deter a few chalet owners sitting outside with a flask of tea and book. Michelle, who runs a B&B with her husband, comes down several times a week to get her fix. 'Even if it's raining, I sit in the door with a blanket and just watch the sea,' she says, adding: 'It's so true, the sea does cure.'
What's not to like
It lacks a decent promenade – somewhere to saunter, with the beach and sea on one side, benches at convenient intervals and attractive gardens.
Do this
Visit the oft-overlooked Whitby Museum, tucked away in tranquil Pannett Park. A Victorian 'cabinet of curiosities' with old-fashioned display cases, it's delightfully idiosyncratic from its 175-million-year-old dinosaur fossil skeletons, ships in bottles and stuffed birds to Matchbox toy cars and Victorian tooth-extractor (not dissimilar to a corkscrew).
Eat this
In a town brimming with fish and chip shops, standards are high. But the black-and-white-fronted Magpie Cafe is an institution. Spread over two creaky floors, its selection is fresh and fulsome. Leave room for the fruit crumble (one feeds two). Mains average £18.
At Hetty & Betty, a cosy cafe, fish and chips is served up on a three-tier cake-stand; afternoon tea, but not as you know it. Above the main event (bottom tier) sits bread and butter and mushy peas, with home-made scones, cream and jam on the top tier. Doggy bags are usually required for the latter (£21 per person).
But don't do this
Don't search the graveyard of St Mary's parish church, on the headland next to the abbey, in the hope of finding Dracula's tomb. Yes, it's gloriously atmospheric with the wind-buffeted tombstones sitting at curious angles, and it does appear in Stoker's Gothic novel. But, remember, it is a novel…
From a local
'Other resorts get commercialised. But here, there are a lot of long-established family businesses,' says Barry Brown, fifth-generation co-owner of Fortune's traditional kipper smokehouse. 'It hasn't gone glitzy and noisy. People take pride in their product.'
'Something pulls you back to Whitby, it's the atmosphere, it's a very accepting place,' says Ellie Farrell, a goth celebrant who, with her graphic designer husband, Rob, moved here from the West Midlands eight years ago. 'There's a real sense of old-school community, a rare thing to find. Everybody looks out for each other.'
From a visitor
'My mum comes to the Goth Weekends and I got interested in goth culture,' explains 18-year-old Anya Olsson from Liverpool, wearing a red and black dress and black veil. Together with boyfriend Dylan Fairs, 23, she creates videos for TikTok, 'usually in cathedrals and cemeteries. Whitby is beautiful, we'll go up to the abbey later.'
'I've never been before, though I'd sailed past many times and thought it looked absolutely spectacular,' says Mark Weston, retired from the Royal Navy, now living in Cornwall. 'I like to soak up history.' Partner Kathy Cullingworth, retired from the NHS, visited when a child. 'It's changed but there's still a lot of old quaint stuff, which we like. It's like stepping back in time.'
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