Bridlington is perhaps best known as a bustling seaside resort where candy floss, buckets and spades, prosecco, fish and chips and fairground rides can be had. And they can. However, away from its lively seafront Bridlington also has a thriving harbour and an overlooked Old Town where Georgian architecture, culture, arts, crafts and good cuisine can be found.
The Georgian High Street features many delightful buildings and shop facades dating back two centuries. These are a natural place to find arts and crafts galleries.
Bridlington has always been a town with a traditional outlook and thus is reflected in the antique shops of the Old Town. Material from Britain's long imperial history can be found and that includes reminders of the unpleasant racist mentality which infused the British Empire.
Some antique items show the infamous 'gollywog' motif with black people dressed in servile dress to perform menial tasks for their white masters. You would not see this on modern TV programmes such as 'BBC Antiques Roadshow' or 'Bargain Hunt'.
Union Jacks feature in the windows of several of the shops, which adds some old fashioned British character to the already…. well, old fashioned British character.
Locals say that the Old Town fills up with tourists when it rains. At other sunnier times visitors tend to stay on the beach front or around the harbour.
A whole episode of the 'Bargain Hunt' TV show could be held from Bridlington Old Town's antique shops.
On the left here is the Board Inn, one of several inns along the main High Street in Bridlington Old Town.
Bridlington's town council is rightly proud of their Georgian streets and have made an effort with some planters as can be seen above.
Arts and crafts are the main focus of this blog so above we have the appropriately named 'Old Town Gallery'. In the galleries of the Old Town many of the paintings on show are of the seaside landscape genre and why not - Bridlington is near to some of the most beautiful cliffs and beaches in the United Kingdom.
The large majority of the shops, restaurants and galleries in the Old Town are independently owned and there are surely few places in East Yorkshire where so many independent businesses can be found.
Some of the galleries and shops are small and rather quaint with friendly and chatty proprietors who are prepared to tell visitors about the art on display.
A welcome trend in general in the UK is the growing number of establishments which sell art & crafts, books and coffee. That sounds like paradise to me.
For those who miss their annual trip to Glastonbury there is Bridlington's very own 'Little Glastonbury Shop' which offers a range of suitably colourful gifts for that hippie in your life. Again, an independent business.
More art galleries in the market place area adjoining the main street through the Old Town. Notice the attractive cobbled street here.
Here in Gallery Forty Nine we see some examples of the sort of work on offer in Bridlington, above us atop the picture is a seaside landscape.
There are some adventurous ceramics and abstract pictures on offer for those with a taste for the ethereal.
There are several good restaurants ad cafes in the old town. The Georgian Tea Rooms are an especial favourite of mine. On this occasion I settled for the Nut & Nettle, a recently opened establishment, which serves vegan food and very decent coffee.
More information about Bridlington Old Town can be found here.