Cromer is the kind of English seaside town that does exactly what it promises. There’s a pier, a beach, a decent crab, and a general sense that not very much has changed in the better part of a century. That’s meant as a compliment. The town sits on top of crumbling cliffs on the north Norfolk coast, and on a clear June day the light off the North Sea is genuinely beautiful.
The pier is the heart of the place — it survived the Second World War (deliberately scuttled in the middle to prevent German use, then repaired), various storms, and the general decline that hit most British seaside towns from the 1970s onwards. The theatre at the end still runs a summer variety show which is, apparently, a genuine institution. The lifeboat station at the pier end is also well worth a look.
The town centre has the tall flint tower of St Peter and St Paul’s church as its focal point — at over 49 metres it’s the tallest in Norfolk, which tells you something about Cromer’s historical confidence. We ate crab sandwiches on the beach, walked the clifftop path east towards Overstrand, and came back with about three hundred photos and a healthy appetite for another visit.