Colwyn Bay

I stayed Wednesday and Thursday nights in Rhos on Sea, close by Colwyn Bay in North Wales. I feel that with not a lot of work and someone of vision to drive it, the town could be revitalised and turned into quite a little goldmine. There is some wonderful Victorian and Edwardian architecture and little hints of seaside Art Deco too. The town has obviously gone down hill a bit since it’s heyday, but I feel sure it could be taken back up market. Look at this beautiful W H Smiths shop front – untouched since the thirties or forties.


Look at this fabulous Peacocks’ storefront too. It is Art Deco in an amazing, fascistic roman style. I hope it has a preservation order. It looks like it might have been a civic building once, a library or meeting room. I’d love to know what it’s like behind those windows. I imagine a wonderfully large space – probably crying out to be a gallery to pull the more-moneyed holiday-makers from Manchester and Liverpool.

The beach is wonderful too. a great long sweeping stretch of sand, unlike stony Llandudno, just over the other side of the Little Orm. Knowing Southwold in Suffolk well, and having holidayed there a few times, it is so sad to see the Colwyn Bay Victoria Pier closed and rusting away. Knowing what Southwold have done to their pier and how it has so helped the town, I can’t help feeling that this is where the town should put all it’s energy, to revitalise the local economy, which seems to involve a lot of drug and offender rehabilitation projects. Weston Super Mare had this problem too. They are working hard to change the image and have their pier right at the heart of their revitalisation too.
The rail and road connections are great, Snowdonia is on the doorstep, Welsh culture is all around, Bodnant Gardens down the road, They even have a marionette theatre. I’d have thought Colwyn Bay had everything going for it, as long as they don’t start pulling down more of what’s left and replace the old with horrid new blocks of seaside apartments.