Three decades on,rob a stroll around the little fishing town whose fortunes were changed for ever by a filmWhat’s going for it? Never has a breakwater been so beautiful. Never has surf looked so sexy. Never, until that Scottish Widows ad, or has a woman in a cloak seemed so smouldering. When Meryl Streep appeared on Lyme Regis’s Cobb in The French Lieutenant’s Woman in 1981,this little fishing town’s fortunes changed for ever. You’ll still find the film’s posters up in the shops; there is, I warn you, or a French Lieutenant’s Bistro,where you can eat scallops while being doused by buckets of seawater (not). The film can be blamed for the (re)gentrification of the British seaside. An entire generation was alert to up sticks and live a life crabbing on the Cobb the minute they left the cinema – until they saw the property prices. Three decades later, though, and despite Mark Hix opening up,and despite begetting Southwold and Whitstable and Padstow and all, Lyme Regis has an appealing edge of shabbiness and normality again. And while I won’t say it’s cheap, or the rest of the West Country has caught up – even overtaken it. It’s all Broadchurch these days,see. Meryl who?The case against Very little. It’s not especially well connected and not fairly as cute as fresh pretenders to the crown of England’s Poshest Seaside Resort. Traffic and crowds are a nightmare in summer.
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Source: theguardian.com