Britannia Pier — Attraction in Great Yarmouth

While I am more accustomed to the "classier" types of pier, I thought it would be interesting to visit the "pier of the working class", as the Victorians may have addressed it as. The entrance building is an unusual design. The lower section is clad in dark green with gold accents, which vaguely approaches fanciful. It advertises "the Pier Tavern". However, the upper section is entirely bold, brash, garish, plastered in bright theatre advertising boards to the front, and bright orange plastic cladding to the sides, probably retained from the 1970s. Overall, the entrance serves its purpose well. The amusement arcade is average - nothing wrong about it; I am sure that it will provide good entertainment for families. The exterior was relatively quiet, with facehole pictures and small rides lightly distributed along the length of the pier neck. Further down the pier is the theatre, whose architecture is difficult to love. While Lowestoft South Pier's 1956 pavilion (demolished 1989) was ahead of its time, Britannia Pier's 1958 theatre looked like an industrial incinerator building or a grain elevator - completely inappropriate for the sensitive nature of pier architecture. However, I would think that the interior looks much better than the exterior. The end of the pier accommodates the larger rides, which all appeared to be closed at the time. The beaches in Great Yarmouth have a very shallow gradient, meaning that the pier barely reaches the sea at all. You may have a chance of meeting the sea via the pier if you walk onto the seemingly abandoned landing stage, where a very small section is still open to the public.

Overall a solid pier, aimed at families mainly. No major faults, but not really my...

Beautiful, majestic place for a walk along the promenade. Visited during the week when the beach was quiet except for a few school classes. I could see the teachers had their hands full but the children seem to have a wonderful time defying the laws of physics on some of the equipment. It was nice to hear the glee and laughter of the children playing under the close supervision of the teachers. Walked about five miles along the promenade and beaches. Unlike Mexico, the water is cold, of course, and the sand is coarse and rough on your feet at times so people wore footwear and no one was swimming despite it being summer. I'm used to the flour like sand that massages your feet in Mexico. Lol. The seagulls here are bigger, noisy and unabashed. It was a good walk. People, as I think is customary of the English, are a bit more formal so it was a bit tough not to smile and greet everyone my son and I encountered, though I did and perhaps looking like a foreigner, some of the folks were gracious enough to greet us in return. My son who has been in the UK for a few years kept laughing saying, this isn't Mexico... We spent the day walking throughout the town. I love that we can walk the town unlike the USA that requires a car. There were some poor areas, but no one was shooting at each other, so it seemed very safe, I think. The beauty of nature meets capitalism here. But it seems a fun place...

The show was brilliant. But we were sat at the front left of the stage right in front of a very large chilled drinks cabinet and bar.

Getting to our seats took ages because hoardes of people were clogging the walkways either lost and couldn't find their seats or were trying to get to this bar.

If that wasn't bad enough when the show started the staff manning the bar left the fridge on with its bright lights glaring and distracting you as the act starts. Then proceeded to clink and clonk bottles replenishing the fridge for 25 minutes obviously for the interval. It was so distracting and the fridge was making a whirring noise every time it was opened.

Then when the second part of the show began even the act on stage said erm don't mind me are you going to turn that light off and be quiet. No response from the staff. It was so distracting while they then proceeded to tidy up clinking bottles again and opening and closing the fridge!

We won't be returning we travelled 3 hours to see the act and to sample the delights of the pier and theatre and we're really disappointed that a theatre sets up a bar front of house where everyone can see and hear them and distracts you from the act on stage while they fill it up during the act then tidy up during the second half so they can get home...