I spent an hour in Torquay today. It’s never been a favourite place but I try sometimes to like it, after all thousands of tourists arrive each year so it must be okay mustn’t it? The pedestrianised town has some of the usual chains and an awful lot of hideous souvenir shops, selling the same tat they sold when I was a child. Do people really want to buy plastic dinosaur ornaments with Torquay emblazoned? Along the sea front sits a theatre where the annual pantomime is performed by F listed soap stars and in the next few months, The Dreamboys full frontal tour – spare me, and the Grimethorpe Colliery band – probably the most talented of the bunch! The beach itself is narrow, but nice for winter sunsets when you can’t see the kiss me quickers.
Tourist ‘attractions’ include a model village (very clever and a bit twee) and Kents cavern (beautiful prehistoric caves) which is listed as a wedding venue, presumably for those of us who would like to re-enact the Flintstones. Between lovely parkland and the esplanade there is a large balloon thingy that allows you to rise directly above the bay, for the views, while remaining tethered to the ground. The hotel used for filming Fawlty towers is somewhere in Torquay, can’t think of anywhere more appropriate.
Torquay has a darker side and I don’t just mean the troublesome night clubs. It’s the drug capital of the South West, filled with dealers who moved down from places like Nottingham and Liverpool, having spent their childhood holidays in the caravan parks. Until they become OAP’s (if they’re spared) and sit in deck chairs on the seafront, with their heads under tabloid newspapers, they will happily prey on the users they have hooked. These dealers have a hierarchy; very, very evident today were the scruffy, jeans sliding down, yobs in small huddles just off the main streets. More worrying are the big boys in their own sleazy underworld. Torquay has a very busy drug and alcohol service and there are hostels in what were once tourist hotels and are now crumbling dives. I found it interesting today to see one of the town councils attempts to deal with the problems, public toilets where 20 pence is charged to help them keep them clean and safe for ‘us’, no doubt it also helps to pay for the sharps disposal container provided inside.
My visit was brief this time. I didn’t stroll beside the marina with its berths full of very expensive yachts, or drive along the exclusive Ilsham Marine Drive, dreaming of a lottery win. Instead I came back, thankful that Exeter (though not perfect) with its clean streets, history and culture is home. It seems that a journalist in the Independent thinks so too http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/sick-of-the-south-east-then-emigrate-to-exeter-6282484.html?fb_action_ids=10150443679332742&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=other_multiline but I really wish he didn’t, maybe he could big up Torquay instead.
Lucid Gypsy 
Very interesting and informative Gilly. Happy New Year! Margie
This is one of the best things I have read in a long while. Especially at this time of year when it’s poignant to reflect on the good, and not-so-good, that’s out there in this world. Nice to read something that’s an honest reflection that gets beneath the skin of a place. Wishing you and yours a very Happy New year. Xx
Dear Ross, thanks for your lovely comment! you may be a touch biased! If you read more of my blog you’ll see that I tend not to hide the not-so-goods, I like a little edginess. I hope you come back again. Happy New Year to all of you! Gxx
i understand how you feel about articles like that … we tell everyone that it is awful here on the south coast, it rains all the time, there are no fish, etc … somehow we want to protect our little piece of paradise from blow-ins who will turn it into suburbia with all the horrors of the mall … meanwhile Happy New Year!
It is so interesting to read a ‘local’ point of view. I’ve been to Torquay many times in the summer and winter. I remember we went for my birthday (26th Jan) & I can still feel the cold sheets in the hotel!!
We went earlier this year and walked around the harbour. We even did a bit of shopping in the ‘old fashioned feeling’ shops. It was an OK time but of course we were visitors able to leave whenever we wanted.
We also like Exeter!!
It’s not all bad, most people who stay in the main streets wouldn’t even be aware of the undercurrents, but they do need to do something before its’ too late.
Oh I’m so please you liked Exeter, it’s a great little city, I was born here and I feel very lucky to live here!
Apologies for the ‘Mrs Skinner’. I had pressed post before realising!!
Eek. And why were you in the drug capital young lady???
Just a quick stop!
Gosh, Gilly, I was in Torquay many years ago and can’ t believe it has become such a drug hotspot now – too sad
Yes the things that made it attractive have attracted the wrong things 😦
Latest prompt for the 100WCGU! http://t.co/XF6YBEpm
Wow Julia thats amazing and a bit scary! I’m honoured, thanks for saying such nice things. But … I’m Goldsworthy not Goldsmith!
I love the way you write, telling it like it is, not all sugar coated. I will cross Torquay off my bucket list… (if I had it on the list)
Dear Maggie thankyou! I do like to write as I see while trying not to be unkind. Torquay for instance isn’t all bad as long as you stay near the centre!