Bognor is a place that I’ve found myself visiting rather more than I’d like of late, by virtue of the fact that my football team (Dulwich Hamlet) seem to play there all the time – usually with disastrous results.
This Mayday, I returned to this run-down south coast seaside resort, only to watch Dulwich lose a crucial play off final.
It rained for most of the match, but thankfully the threatening dark clouds in the late afternoon sky failed to open when I reached the beach (unlike my rain-lashed trip in 2015).
The train trip to the coast sometimes involves a change at the wonderfully preserved Barnham station, a junction stop for the short branch to Bognor Regis.
It is also a well-used interchange for passengers between slow and fast services, with services to London Victoria via Gatwick Airport, Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Littlehampton (via Ford) and the occasional long-distance services to the West Country.
Opening in 1864, it’s used by over a million passengers a year, and has its own charming station cafe (below).
Bognor’s Marine Park Gardens after the rain.
Beach huts.
Skies clearing.
Having a chat.
Taking a very bracing walk along the seafront.
Solid Italianate-style architecture faces the sea.
Windy scenes.
Threatening skies in the distance.
Bognor’s cut-down pier is still in a pretty poor state, although the ‘Friends of Bognor Regis Pier‘ continue to lobby for its future.
Read more about the pier here.
Velvet rope by the pier entrance. There’s posh!
View from the pier.
A windswept pier view.
This memorable warning sign happily remains intact.
Breakwaters.
Fishing boats on the beach.
Boat flags.
All was very, very quiet along London Road, the main shopping street.
I’m not entirely convinced that their Bank Holiday sale was truly “spectacular.”
Bognor’s wonderful cinema.
Bognor’s striking Victorian terminus is undergoing a £2m restoration, which will see many original features refurbished.
What looks like a vintage Butlins poster can be seen on the station concourse.
Parts of the station look unchanged since Victorian times.
Chat about Bognor
More Bognor photos:
Bognor Regis, East Sussex – street shots, Terry’s donuts and the run-down pier
A grim afternoon on the pier and along the seafront of rain-lashed Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis Pier – Run-down Grade II listed pier on the south coast
An autumnal day trip to Bognor Regis on the south coast – photo report
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