Bognor Regis: Travel YouTuber goes inside Butlin’s
The reputation of Bognor Regis has suffered two major blows. First in the late 1920s when, in failing health, the late King George V had a pithy two-word response to a suggestion that he might retire to the West Sussex town to recover.
The second setback for Bognor came just last week when Which? Magazine ranked the resort last in its annual list of the UK’s best and worst seaside destinations.
But YouTuber James Burton was determined to vindicate the famous seaside resort’s honour, and set off on an epic 250-mile voyage from his native Barnsley to check it out for himself, recording the reults on his popular By The Curb channel.
Despite only minimal planning, he managed to get to Bognor on one of the hottest and sunniest days of the year and cheekily sneaked in to the seaside town’s Butlins, joking: “They’ll be reviewing the security measures after this video goes out, won’t they?”
Read more… Tourist in UK’s ‘worst’ seaside town names 2 nearby resorts with bigger problems
James did some minimal planning before setting off on his jaunt (Image: YouTube/ByTheCurb)
Certainly, for unpretentious fun, the Yorkshireman said, Butlins took a lot of beating, and alone showed that the Which? review was definitely too harsh.
“Worst seaside town in the UK?” he said, before adding: “Absolute waffle. It’s lovely.
“I’m not going to say it’s the best,” he added, “but it is nice. Yet again, I’ve proved them all wrong, I just come here, walked around and proved them wrong.”
James’s upbeat reappraisal of the much-maligned town was helped by the glorious weather, with barely a cloud in sight.
Bognor was looking its best for James’s visit (Image: YouTube/ByTheCurb)
The resort’s sign dates back to the company’s original name, before it dropped its apostrophe (Image: YouTube/ByTheCurb)
He enjoyed a cold beer from a bar right on the town’s pebble beach, noting: “It was just £4.90, which is not bad value really with that spectacular view.” He also looked in at one or two promising chip shops.
However, James felt that Butlins was the jewel in Bognor’s crown, which made history as the first of Billy Butlin’s famous chain of holiday camps in 1960.
While the company’s fortunes have declined sharply since its 1960s heyday, Butlins Resort Bognor Regis still caters for over 385,000 visitors per year, with 300,000 being residents and 85,000 visiting for the day.
James was one of the day visitors, albeit unofficially, having wandered in with every intention of buying a ticket but arriving too late to catch the gate staff, who appeared to have clocked off.
James was delighted by what Butlins had to offer (Image: YouTube/ByTheCurb)
He was in time to see one of the company’s iconic redcoats leading a crowd of delighted youngsters in a rousing chorus of “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” and declared: “I’d have loved this as an eight-year-old.”
Living “life on the edge,” James also made his way into one of the resort’s numerous restaurants: “To be honest it looked a nice restaurant.
“I’ve never seen so many chicken nuggets though,” he added, “they must go through thousands of chicken nuggets.”
Despite some difficulties finding his way out of the resort, James was favourably impressed: “I liked it,” he said, “It looked good.
Bognor has been a popular resort since the days of Jane Austen [stock image] (Image: Getty)
“I’m going to bring my daughter to a Butlins…it’s gone up in my estimation.”
After some fish and chips that he scored a solid eight out of 10, he made his way back to his hotel, which had previously played host to classic comedian Tony Hancock, who stayed there when filming his Sixties classic, The Punch and Judy Man.
Overall, James said, Bognor didn’t deserve its bad reputation: “It’s tidy. The people are friendly.
“It’s got a lovely beach. I know it’s a pebbly beach, but that don’t matter. You’ve got Butlins. Butlins was great.”