Is Torquay still the English Riviera?

G

Garold

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 Jan 2010
Messages
1,319
Location
St Albans
Visit site
We arrived in Torquay Marina today, had a good walk round the town, ate in an Italian restaurant, and wandered back through the town this evening.

And it isn't like I remember it from my last visit (prob 20 years ago).

It appears a bit more run down than I remember it, with more loud teenagers out at night (chucking various bits of street furniture in the harbour). I can't find any evidence of the comparison with Nice or any other 'riviera' that is mentioned in the pilot book.

Have I missed something or does Torquay (town) not live up to its reputation these days?

Cheers

Garold
 
Actually it was the fabulously rude place which inspired Fawlty Towers when the Pythons stayed there, then Cleese based the imaginary place there.

I remember in one episode Fawlty scoffs at a worried guest, " Oh yes, a lot of bloodshed at the Nell Gwynne Tea Rooms " but sadly that's more correct than JC realised.

RiggerMortice is right, I remember visiting Torquay around 1979, it was frankly frightening at night around the harbour, and all the pubs had bouncers ( in those days, a novelty ).

A great shame, but I suppose if all the idiots home in there, the rest of this great area is left for humans to enjoy.

I wouldn't be put off Torquay if it was ( somehow ) a tactically useful stop on a passage, I'd just be careful, and take precautionary steps as if I was in the TV series 'The Walking Dead' !
 
Seajet said:
A great shame, but I suppose if all the idiots home in there, the rest of this great area is left for humans to enjoy.
Click to expand...

You're right. I've changed my mind.

Torquay is fantastic. Highly recommended; people really must go there. Its genteel, charming, always a joy to visit. Saturday night around the harbour is blissful. :):):)
 
Garold said:
We arrived in Torquay Marina today, loud teenagers out at night (chucking various bits of street furniture in the harbour).
Cheers

Garold
Click to expand...

I thought it was all bolted down or already in the harbour!

Come and see us in Salcombe - one more won't make any difference and it's not as busy as it gets in the summer - restaurants have free tables and you can get a drink in any pub!
 
Rigger Mortice said:
You're right. I've changed my mind.

Torquay is fantastic. Highly recommended; people really must go there. Its genteel, charming, always a joy to visit. Saturday night around the harbour is blissful. :):):)
Click to expand...
The last time we were in Torquay marina, we had a competition for when we went for a walk late in the evening.

Points were to be scored for spotting fights, vomit, white stilleto heels, police cars with blue lights etc etc. We had ticked all the items off within the first few minutes.
 
Garold said:
We arrived in Torquay Marina today, had a good walk round the town, ate in an Italian restaurant, and wandered back through the town this evening.

And it isn't like I remember it from my last visit (prob 20 years ago).

It appears a bit more run down than I remember it, with more loud teenagers out at night (chucking various bits of street furniture in the harbour). I can't find any evidence of the comparison with Nice or any other 'riviera' that is mentioned in the pilot book.

Have I missed something or does Torquay (town) not live up to its reputation these days?

Cheers

Garold
Click to expand...

If you think its bad now, wait until the grockles arrive in the summer.

What struck me a few years ago on a visit was the large amount chewing gum stuck to the pavement, never seen so much.
 
Top hen night destination. Mid summer the front is awash with drunken trollops flashing their bosoms. The Royal Torbay is always very welcoming though.
 
doris said:
Top hen night destination. Mid summer the front is awash with drunken trollops flashing their bosoms. The Royal Torbay is always very welcoming though.
Click to expand...

Have done Torbay week a couple of times recently, and the Royal Torbay is indeed excellent.

Venturing out into town was a bit of an eye opener. It was a bad as Newquay....
 
I can only think you chaps and chapesses don't get out very much.

The description of Torquay fits virtually every Saturday night town centre in England.

Its what modern yoof think of as fun !
 
I think its all over Europe really.
Mind you, we have some noisy youngsters here but they are not dangerous or intimidating just very noisy at the weekend.
But I saw an incident in the UK I will never forget.
One evening in Gloucester with a friend, we decided to go out on the town for a drink on a Saturday night.:eek:
I made several observations but the following is the most er., "remarkable"...
We stopped outside a nightclub that had a huge queue of people waiting to get in. We joined the queue.
Then out of the club and past the bouncers there emerged two girls that looked like angels, really pretty, obviously sisters as they were so alike.
They were dressed in South Sea Island costumes, fancy dress. Blonde curly hair, blue bodices, bare tummies, grass skirts, golden sandals, each with a flower in their hair....
They looked really lovely.
But then I noticed they were quite drunk.
One of them stood around talking on a mobile phone.
The other one went and sat on the edge of the pavement with her sandalled feet in the gutter.
All the lads walking past on the opposite pavement made loud comments as she had opened her legs as she sat there.
She now proceeded to rock herself back and forth..
To my astonishment she vomited probably all she had drunk that evening in one go.
It gushed out in a perfect arc and landed in a perfect puddle in the middle of the street.
She now gets up, crosses the street and disappears into a fish and chip shop.
A couple of minutes later she comes out, walks back across, and sits in the same spot, with the same posture and proceeds to eat out of the paper bag.
I have seen drunken sailors do similar, but never a girl, and one that looked so angelic to boot. I was amused and shocked.
It made me think twice about succumbing to kissing strange girls in nightclubs.:eek:
 
Last edited:
Don't forget Torquay's nautical dimension. The only real deep water, all tide, all weather port between Plymouth and Portland with the possible exception of Dartmouth, but Dartmouth has a tricky entrance. If I were crossing Lyme Bay at night, it's where I would head. Especially in bad weather.
 
Brixham is usually a lot closer to one's route crossing Lyme Bay, and while not exactly Fowey it does have a certain charm for short periods.

And there is the bonus one would have to try much harder there to have one's head kicked in, I've spent a week or two in Brixham Marina quite happily...
 
Seajet said:
Brixham is usually a lot closer to one's route crossing Lyme Bay, and while not exactly Fowey it does have a certain charm for short periods.

And there is the bonus one would have to try much harder there to have one's head kicked in, I've spent a week or two in Brixham Marina quite happily...
Click to expand...

was in Brixham harbour once, watching a gentleman clean the bottom of his boat on the scrubing piles, he offerd me 2 shillings to lend him a hand , and I thought us scotsmen were tight with money!! , it was only last summer !.
 
Seajet said:
RiggerMortice is right, I remember visiting Torquay around 1979, it was frankly frightening at night around the harbour, and all the pubs had bouncers ( in those days, a novelty ).
/QUOTE]

Ah yes Torquay in 1979, I remember it well, I was working there at the time, in Abbey Road. Drug gangs roaming the town with shotguns. The DHSS in Warren Road was a hot-spot for teenagers who had fancied a summer in the sun and then run out of money and clean clothes. Madness (the group) appearing at the disco on Victoria Parade,, with the bass player spitting beer over the audience. Madam Rosinna the clairvoyant in her shop off Victoria Parade, reading cards for nervous passengers before they caught the ferry that used to run - but where did it run to? That has slipped my memory.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top