Hunstanton - The Town Today

The Town Today

The town is notable for several stately Victorian squares, perhaps most notably Boston Square, which enjoys fine views across the Wash to Boston in Lincolnshire. On a fine day, one can see the Boston Stump.

Hunstanton is home to a fairground, aquarium and seal sanctuary, leisure pool, theatre, large caravan parks with amenities (Searle's Holiday Park opened in 1936), a number of amusement arcades and a long promenade. In good weather, boats run by Searle's carry tourists out to view grey seals that have colonised sand bars in the Wash and to the north of Norfolk. The centrepiece of the town remains the large sloping green, which runs from one end of High Street to the promenade.

The town boasted a Victorian pleasure pier, with fine attractions, including a pavilion and miniature steam railway running up and down it. The pier pavilion was destroyed by fire in 1939, the pier was damaged by fire again in the 1950s, before almost the entire structure was washed away by a fierce storm in 1978. What remained of the pier extended just fifteen feet outwards from the amusement arcade and cafe that was built on the site of the original entrance. In 2002, the entire building, as well as the remains of the pier, were destroyed in a fire. As the building was so badly damaged, firemen could not determine the cause of the fire. Today, a new arcade and bowling alley complex occupies the site.

Hunstanton has regular markets on Wednesdays and Sundays selling fresh fish and fresh fruit and vegetables. The markets attract greater numbers in the summer months through to the autumn. The principal shopping streets of the town are elegantly laid out as stone buildings, some with glazed canopies, evoking the Victorian and Edwardian eras of their construction and retaining a vibrant mixture of outlets including England's largest joke shop.

Hunstanton is home to Glebe House School & Nursery, an independent co-educational preparatory school.

The town has hosted several international sporting events including the 2005 World Water Ski Racing Championships.

The countryside surrounding Hunstanton is hillier than most of Norfolk and is sparsely populated, the only nearby large settlement being King's Lynn, 12 miles (19 km) to the south.

The catchment area of Hunstanton's day-tripper visitors includes the remote fenland of south-west Norfolk, south Lincolnshire, north Cambridgeshire and the Midlands beyond it. Holidaymakers are attracted by nearby Sandringham House (the Queen's winter residence), Castle Rising, the Burnhams (birthplace of Lord Nelson) and the RSPB reserves at nearby Titchwell village and Snettisham.

On Deaf Havana's latest album Fools and Worthless Liars, the town features as the subject of 'Hunstanton Pier', a nostalgic recollection of the town where James Veck-Gilodi, the band's lead singer grew up.