Cromer is enjoying something of a renaissance after a multi-million pound regeneration initiative. New restaurants and cafes are opening, and there’s a programme of concerts and festivals throughout the year. The fireworks over the water on New Year’s Day are spectacular, and every summer the town hosts the second largest carnival after Notting Hill. We can only wonder what the Victorians would make of that.

Victorian royalty loved this town and turned it into their place to take the waters. They set out on an ambitious building programme and their fine efforts loom large above the mainly sandy beach below.  Follow the attractive narrow streets fanning out from the church and you end up on their pier; stroll east along the beach towards Overstrand and you pass sweeping cliffs and the new brightly-painted beach huts.

The forerunners of the huts used to preserve Victorian modesty and were as close to the sea as they could be. Goat carts pulled passengers along the beach and Mr. Baldwin's Tea Tent, a wooden shack on the sand close to the gangway, did a brisk business. 

The Captain's House has witnessed the changing times. Built in 1820 for Captain Ellis who manned the helm of Cromer's coal vessels, it was modernised by the Victorians in approximately 1887 when a third storey was added to most of the homes around the Crescent. The vessels were eventually replaced by the more cost-effective railway that brought a wave of Victorian tourists to the new spa town. There are still good rail links to Cromer from London, and cross-country, via Norwich.