Our short break along the coast in 2014 saw us using Exmouth as a base and heading off to nearby sites of interest each day. One of those days saw us pay a reasonably short visit to Torquay; short mostly because we had plans to hit the next town over to look around Paignton Zoo and didn’t know how long we would spend there, and because the wind was strong that day, blowing clouds over and always threatening rain.
So, we used the time in Torquay to simply get a feel for the town with an eye permanently roaming on the search for things that might interest us enough to arrange a return trip. This post about our time in Torquay basically covers a walk along the seafront with some notes about what we saw, although we also spent a little time in the town away from the water where we stopped for tea and cakes before moving on.
Even if you read nothing about the history of Torquay you’d be able to surmise quite a bit from a quick look along its shoreline. Torquay is not a big town by any means and there is plenty of evidence of fishing being an important part of its economy. This was what the town was effectively good for for hundreds of years until nearby areas were used as sheltered harbours during the Napoleonic wars and fleet personnel paid visits to the quiet spot. The reasonably warm climate (for the UK at that time) led to the town being nicknamed “The English Riviera” and it started to grow in popularity as a destination for those seeking to rest and recuperate, something which continued throughout the Victorian and Edwardian periods in much the same way as many other coastal resorts in the country.
During World War II Torquay only suffered minor bombing damage and was considered a fairly safe location for evacuees. The nearby area was also used by some of the American troops who took part in the D-Day landings, heading to Utah Beach in Normandy from Torquay. In the first photo below you can see a cobbled ramp leading into the water; this was a loading ramp constructed for the craft taking troops and equipment across the channel.
The Torquay Pavilion Theatre was opened in 1912 after having been started the year before, although the design had been finalised a decade earlier. It’s classically Victorian and Edwardian in appearance and function, with touches of Art Nouveau in some of the details of the building.
You can tell a lot about a place by its flags. Torquay had several of them grouped together in one spot, yet uncared for, tatty, for show but not really considered. This was a part of the world that a year and a half after our visit would vote heavily in favour of leaving the EU – more so even than our own local area of dipshittery – and we could get a sense of that as we walked around. Granted, this was a November, and there aren’t many places that look their best at that time of the year, but the sun was shining (mostly) and yet the feeling we picked up from Torquay was not great. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t Blackpool levels of unpleasantness. Nowhere (yet) has Blackpool levels of unpleasantness. But Torquay felt like a place that, like its flags, had a façade of something better in the past over the top of decay. With hindsight I can even understand why these people might have voted for what they thought would be a better world post-Brexit, but that doesn’t excuse the lack of judgement in realising that the people to blame weren’t who the papers or the TV or the politicians were saying it was; it was the fault of those much closer to home. Perhaps they’re comprehending that now. Flags left to rot flying proudly, and the most homeless people and signs of drug use we’d seen outside America, and that instinctive feeling that this was a town waiting for its own end.
Part of the reason for Torquay’s warm microclimate can be attributed to its shelter thanks to the cliffs of Walden Hill. Paths lead up the face of the cliffs through what is officially called the Royal Terrace Gardens but more commonly known as the Rock Walk. Pink bedrock is dotted with landscaped areas containing sculptures and Mediterranean plants, and the top of the hill is lined with buildings that have in the past been likened to Monte Carlo. If you squint, perhaps. No, no we didn’t climb the path up the cliffs.
For all our love of the sea and being beside the seaside, when it comes to beaches we’re generally not too fussed. If you’re a fan of sandy beaches, though, then Torquay has you covered with a long stretch of them along its seafront.
The Abbey Sands Complex caught my eye. Despite only being completed in the year we visited, thanks to local planning requirements regarding height and appearance and consideration for other buildings in the area, the design was influenced heavily by Streamline Moderne Art Deco. This fit in very well with the feel of a seaside resort given the heyday of that type of tourist destination.
Crossing over the seafront road via the pedestrian bridge brought us to Abbey Park. This was an area of public land near the water consisting of a meadow, a pond with Italian-style garden, a bowling green, tennis courts, miniature golf course, and café.
Well, we’d seen the Abbey Sands Complex and we’d passed through Abbey Park so it was only a matter of time before we came to Torre Abbey, from where those places got their names. Torre Abbey was the first major building to be constructed in Torquay, right at the end of the twelfth century. It was originally a monastery belonging to the White Canons (officially known as the Premonstratensians) and is the best-preserved medieval monastery in the county. Following the dissolution during Henry VIII’s reign the buildings fell into private hands until the local council acquired them in 1930 and adapted their use as a museum and art gallery. There was no indication that we could go in when we visited and so we didn’t, but it’s the sort of place we would visit if we were to return to Torquay.
Having eaten up enough time ahead of our planned next stop in Paignton, we decided that we’d seen enough of Torquay’s seafront and headed back the way we’d come. That meant a walk back through Abbey Park, down onto the main promenade along the beach, past the cliffs and the Rock Walk and the pavilion.
Torquay, as you can see, has some pretty areas. But…
As I’ve already mentioned, Torquay left us with at best a feeling of ambivalence towards it. It felt depressing to be there, to be honest, and while it could be argued that the time of the year could have had any undue impact it’s worth remembering that we almost always travel around the UK well outside the tourist season, and only Blackpool has left us feeling worse (and considerably worse). There were a lot of homeless people in doorways of boarded-up shops and plenty of evidence of the problem with drug misuse thanks to dedicated bins for needles and discarded ones in the street. We had an encounter with an aggressive person in a coffee shop (mental health or drugs, or a combination, I can’t say) and there were signs of urban decay in the state of buildings and flags, and the quality of the graffiti (I didn’t post pictures of the crude scrawls likening Jewish people to Nazis). We didn’t like Torquay would be the message to take away from this. That’s not to say that it’s still like this, of course, and you should never base a visit anywhere upon one person’s review or experiences. We won’t be rushing back to the English Riviera, though.