The end-of-pier show used to be as much a part of the British seaside experience as saucy postcards and sticks of rock. But, when Benidorm replaced Blackpool as the summer destination of choice, it more or less died out. Today, there is just one authentic end-of-pier show - at Cromer on the North Norfolk coast - where Seaside Specials still play to packed houses at the Pavilion Theatre throughout the summer months.
Cromer (population 5,000) remains one of the truly traditional seaside towns of England, and is rightly famed for its elegant Edwardian promenades, long sandy beaches, crabs, lobsters and fabulous fish and chip shops. Local attractions include sunken gardens, a lighthouse, a mini-funfair, a boating lake, bowling greens, endless amusement arcades and an annual carnival in August - this year celebrating its 30th anniversary with a display by the Red Arrows. Everything about the place, from its clapboard chalets to its illuminations and coin-operated telescopes, is redolent of a bygone golden age of British holidaymaking.
It has a good pedigree, having been a mecca for literary figures: Daniel Defoe wrote of the quality and profusion of its lobsters during a walking tour of the area in 1724; Jane Austen referred to it in Emma as 'the best of all sea-bathing places'; while, later on in the century, it was visited by Alfred Lord Tennyson and Oscar Wilde, who wrote A Woman of No Importance at nearby Felbrigg.
However, the writer really responsible for putting the place on the map was the poet and essayist Clement Scott whose Poppy Land Papers, published in 1886, became a bestseller and attracted such celebrities to the area as the poet Swinburne, and the Shakespearean actors Henry Irving, Dame Ellen Terry and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree.
Apart from the artists and bohemians, Cromer also found favour with aristocracy and royalty. Edward VII was a frequent visitor, both before and after his accession. He became patron of the Royal Cromer Golf Course and often put up at the Royal Links Hotel - destroyed by fire in 1949. Edward also frequently stayed with local landowner Lord Suffield, from whom he rented nearby Gunton Hall while Sandringham was being built, and the Maharaja of Cooch Behar - a friend of Queen Victoria's - who had settled at Tudor House on Cliff Avenue. A frieze of stained glass above its front door still bears Edward's coat of arms and it is rumoured that he enjoyed assignations there with actress Lillie Langtry. Certainly Lillie was no stranger to Cromer - she performed at the Town Hall Theatre for a week during the summer of 1906.
Fittingly, the town's current Grade II listed pier was opened in 1901 - the same year as Edward's coronation. There are records of wooden jetties and piers at Cromer dating back to the 14th century, but these weren't pleasure piers - they were there to help shipping along this particularly treacherous stretch of coast, still known as 'the devil's throat'. During just one night in 1692, 200 vessels sank off this shore with the loss of 1,000 lives. Perhaps it's hardly surprising, then, that one of Cromer's most celebrated sons is Henry Blogg - the greatest coxswain of all time who helped the local lifeboat crew save a record 873 lives before his death in 1954.
It was not until the coming of the railways - the Great Eastern in 1877, followed by the Midland & the North 10 years later - that the wealthy tourists started coming to Cromer in numbers and fuelled the demand for a full-blown Victorian pleasure pier. This was built in steel and officially opened with a golden key by the chairman of the Great Eastern Railways, Lord Hamilton, who warned against the dangers of attracting 'cheap trippers from all parts of the country'. Cromer should, he said, remain the preserve of those 'in the better paths of life'.
The new pier was 500ft long and a bandstand was built at the end which was later transformed into the Pavilion Theatre. Military bands performed there during the first world war and concert parties continued throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s when a proper entertainments committee was established and a resident company of players engaged.
This was the heyday of the summer concert party - professional but low-budget productions comprising two shows that alternated on a weekly basis and ran for one season only. Cast sizes varied from eight to 16 people and would typically include a master of ceremonies with nubile female assistant, a couple of comedians, a group of dancers, a smattering of musicians and singers, and perhaps a couple of speciality acts such as contortionists or fire-eaters. They were essentially revue shows in which a series of sketches would be interspersed with song-and-dance routines.
Concert parties were more or less suspended during the second world war when many piers, Cromer included, were deliberately vandalised to deter enemy landings. Although briefly revived in the post-war period - when the likes of Roy Hudd and Bruce Forsyth learned to ply their trades - their days were numbered as the larger resorts started staging bigger, star-studded shows, more akin to those playing at the London Palladium than traditional end-of-pier fare. Only Cromer remained true to the spirit of the summer concert party with the launch of its SeasideSpecials in the 1970s.
Peter Hepple, former editor of the Stage newspaper says, 'All the resorts used to hold summer concert parties, but they were on their way out in the 1960s and had completely died out by the 1970s. The one at Cromer is the last of a long line and rightly enjoys its cult status and box-office success.' Certainly the Pavilion Theatre is a wonderfully atmospheric venue - nothing quite beats strolling out at dusk along an illuminated pier for an evening of unpretentious entertainment in a tiny barrel-vaulted timber auditorium gently buffeted by wind and waves.
It's intimate in scale, with seating for just 443 and a cast size averaging 15. You won't see any big stars here, but they're all seasoned professionals - often alternating between seaside shows in the summer and provincial pantos in the winter - who can equally well turn their hand to singing, dancing and telling jokes. A master of ceremonies and his female sidekick will typically fill in the gaps between sketches with a stream of mildly banter, while frequent set and costume changes take place in the wings and cramped warren of dressing rooms. It certainly goes down a treat with the elderly parties of day trippers from as far afield as Norwich and King's Lynn, who block book the place up weeks in advance.
Apart from its setting, Robert Marlowe, creative director of Seaside Special since 1983, accredits the show's enduring popularity to its sheer vitality: 'We produce two completely new shows every season, using new sketches, new jokes, new choreography and new acts which we talent spot in clubs and resorts around the country. I hate it when people use 'end-of-pier show' in a derogatory way to suggest that something is hopelessly amateur or out-of-date. Everything about our productions is professional and we're not at all stuck in a time warp - in this year's show, we've even got a spoof of the Spice Girls.'
Above the pier and dominating Cromer's seafront is the flamboyantly baroque splendour of the Hotel de Paris and the 160ft flint steeple of the medieval church of St Peter and St Paul, which is constantly surrounded by a halo of screeching seagulls. Sadly, the splendour of the cavernous Hotel de Paris - founded by a nobleman fleeing the French Revolution - is now restricted only to its facade. Whereas in the 1890s its guestbook read like a Who's Who of the day, with visitors including Lord Tennyson, Lord Curzon, the Duchess of Marlborough and Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill, today they have been replaced by those 'cheap trippers' so deplored by Lord Hamilton of the Great Eastern Railways. Most of the guests come on coach tours - gnome-like little old men and women comparing blood pressure readings over cholesterol-rich breakfast fry-ups. The rooms are still large and the sea views some of the best in town, but the decor is cheerless and there is a general air of faded grandeur about the place.
A much better bet is the Old Red Lion hotel a little further along the front. There has been an inn on this site since the 18th century, although the present one dates only from the 1890s. The Old Red Lion is small and cosy, with a pub on the ground floor patronised by residents and locals alike - always a good sign.
Cromer is not famed for its cuisine, but the traditional English fare served up here is not bad and the breakfasts are first rate. The rooms are fresh, clean and airy, and those at the back look out over a glorious stretch of beach where you can watch the lobster catchers toiling with their tackle and boats.
The practicals
Seaside Special '99 is at the Pavilion Theatre, Cromer, from June 19 to September 18, Mondays to Saturdays at 8pm, matinees 2.30pm Wednesdays & Thursdays and 4pm Saturdays. Two shows alternate weekly throughout the season, plus a programme of celebrity shows on Sundays. Box office: 01263 512495. A double room at the Old Red Lion Hotel (01263 514964) costs •84pp per night, including full English breakfast.
