With its pristine sandy beaches and bustling seafront its easy to see why Great Yarmouth was beloved by millions of day trippers for decades.
In recent years the council has splashed cash to brighten up the ageing Britannia Pier and promenade in an effort to recapture some of the town’s past glory.
But while crowds of summer holidaymakers still enjoy strolling past its arcades, fish and chip shops and walking on the sand – a few roads over it is a very different story.
Like a lot of Britain’s faded seaside gems, Yarmouth has a big hotel problem.
Victorian guest houses and converted homes once packed to the rafters with excited visitors are now left empty, boarded-up and derelict after years of decline.
Neglected back streets are now becoming used by fly-tipping yobs to dump rubbish and old furniture.
Even the town’s Winter Gardens, a grand grade-II listed glass hall, is boarded-off while it awaits a much needed spruce-up thanks to £10m in lottery funding.
But residents want funding spread evenly to tidy up the streets packed with eyesore buildings.
One local told the Daily Mail: ‘The same investment hasn’t gone into other buildings.
‘It’s cosmetic on the seafront but there’s fly tipping on the back streets.
‘The two years after lock down were alright because people hadn’t been anywhere.
‘Then after that the decline started and you had foreign men put into hotels with no outlook or work at all.’
While the council are keen to suggest that all seaside towns have a problem with empty buildings – Yarmouth’s are hard to ignore.
An eerie building just one street back from the seafront is the former home of The Victory Hotel.
The hotel has remained derelict for years and in 2023 its roof was damaged by a fire caused by a suspected arson attack.
Just eight weeks before the fire broke out, police discovered a cannabis farm growing inside the dilapidated building.
Just a few minutes away, a blue plaque on the front of the Royal Hotel on the seafront, proudly tells visitors Charles Dickens had stayed there from 1848 to 1849 while he was writing David Copperfield.
But now the once-grand hotel is closed with weeds growing up around the edges and a sign saying it was guarded by 24/7 security.
Further along the front, Trafalgar House, a large Victorian building once home to a restaurant, is boarded up with a sign saying it is for let.
The Show Boat amusement arcade is also closed for business, with its windows whited-out.
While a Victorian sailors’ refuge, dating from 1861, called The Sailors Home is also boarded-up.
The building had been a museum between 1967 and 2003 but now a sign says ‘renovation plans’ are being ‘finalised’.
Further up on the North Quay, the derelict Star Hotel just about remains intact. The grade-II listed building has been standing since the 1600s but has become riddled with crime after its closure in 2020.
The hotel, which was left in a state of disrepair, has been the subject of numerous break-ins and earlier this year had to be attended by fire crews after a crumbling part of the structure nearly fell to the floor.
Yarmouth seems to be a tale of two towns – the grim, neglected back streets and the smarter sea front.
Nadine Fox, 44, who works in one of the food kiosks by the beach said the cost of living is crippling the town’s economy.
She said: ‘I have lived here my whole life. As a holiday resort, it has gone downhill, mainly because of Covid.
‘People cannot afford to do the same things as they did before.
‘Now, if they have donuts and ice-cream, they can’t afford to have lunch out as well. They either do one or the other.
‘It’s a lovely town but things have just become too expensive.
‘We open until 11pm but a lot of the other businesses on the seafront close at 4pm or 5pm. It’s because it’s cheaper to close.
‘They cannot afford to pay the staff, even if it’s on the minimum wage, that’s still £12 plus. And there’s the tax and National Insurance.
‘I would not want to see the bills for this place because these machines have to be left on all night [slush and ice cream machines]. The overheads have gone sky high.
‘People will walk around the arcades and won’t spend a penny and come and see the firework shows on Wednesday evenings.’
Nick Robson, 56, runs a gift shop. He said: ‘I think the investment in the town has changed it considerably. It looks a lot cleaner on the seafront but other areas have suffered because of it. The same investment hasn’t gone into other buildings.
‘It’s cosmetic on the seafront but there’s fly tipping on the back streets.
‘The two years after lock down were alright because people hadn’t been anywhere. Then after that the decline started and you had foreign men put into hotels with no outlook or work at all.’
Councillors from Great Yarmouth Borough Council blamed the cost of cheaper holidays in Spain for the lack economic downturn – but said the town’s future is bright.
Cllr Malcolm Bird said: ‘I do not think any seaside town is like it was in the Fifties or Sixties. I think there has been a decline. People’s holidays have changed.
‘There’s a lot of positives but hotels need to invest in the future and offer people nothing less than what they’ve got at home. You have to invest.
‘But a lot of these hotels are owned by middle-aged hoteliers and guest-house operators who do not want to throw that money into the business and instead rent them out as houses in multiple occupation which brings them revenue but does not do the town that great.’
He added: ‘We’ve had problems [with refuse collection] but from the first of April we have had a complete change of operators and they’re investing in new sweepers and are trying to eradicate the dumping of furniture. It has improved.
‘There are parts of Yarmouth, the back of the seafront, where there’s a lot of property which is in need of major refurbishment and unfortunately we are not in such a bright economic period we used to be in.
‘You can always go anywhere and find the bad parts.
‘People say they think Great Yarmouth will be like Skegness or Canvey Island but I say “No, we have a third river crossing and all the amusement arcades that my kids and their kids love are there and looking nice.”
‘It’s part of an English summer holiday.’
Despite the derelicts buildings littering the town centre, visitors said Yarmouth was nicer than other seaside favourites.
Rita Smith, 78, on holiday with partner John Quinn, also 78, from Glasgow, said: ‘We’ve been to a few English resorts, Blackpool, Morecambe, Scarborough and Skegness, and this is the nicest. But some of the back streets are a bit run-down.’
Amanda Organ, 52, was with her son Thomas, aged four, said: ‘I’ve known Great Yarmouth for a long time.
‘It’s a little bit more run down, but it always has been.
‘What we find quite surprising is how expensive everything is. For holiday-makers, it’s very expensive.
‘For me, its best years were 30 years ago, when I was young, when the whole sea front was lined with shops selling candy floss, buckets and beach shoes and it’s okay now but all the restaurants are closed.
‘We have a lovely sandy beach there. Why is that not being heavily-promoted? It’s because people cannot afford to come here. People have to spend a lot.
‘We were going to go up to the model village but that’s £11 so we didn’t.
‘I’ve only got one child but my friend has three children and for her to do crazy golf would cost £40.’
Tracy Crowther, 56, was staying in Great Yarmouth with her father, Malcolm, 86, for a five-day holiday.
They came down on a coach trip from Leeds and were disappointed when they first saw the hotel they were staying at.
Tracy, a teacher, said: ‘I was disappointed when I first saw it. I didn’t want to get off the coach. It looked tired from the outside and not very nice. But it’s lovely on the inside. The food is lovely and it’s nice.
‘We came here because we used to come as kids.’
Malcolm said: ‘It’s a bit run-down now. It’s looking a little bit tired and that was a bit of a surprise.
‘The back streets remind me a little bit of Blackpool.
‘A couple of years ago me and my wife [Doreen] were here and stayed at that hotel [The Royal Hotel]. I’m not surprised it’s closed down.
‘We were very disappointed to say the least. It was very run-down and badly organised. They had no idea how to run the place.’
Malcolm said: ‘I’d still rather be here than Scarborough or Blackpool.’