Our guide to Aldeburgh and Thorpeness: creativity and culture by the East Suffolk seaside
It’s not surprising that H.T ‘Jim’ and Betty Cadbury-Brown, two architects that met and worked in the practice of Ernö Goldfinger, had a soft spot for this stretch of Suffolk. Jim, in particular, whose family owned a holiday home in Thorpeness, played a part in Aldeburgh’s architectural progression, refurbishing the Jubilee Hall for Aldeburgh Festival and converting a barn into a studio for its founder, the local and lauded composer Benjamin Britten. But arguably his most curious contribution to the area’s landscape is more personal: the 1960s home he built and lived in with Betty. A reflection of their modernist principles, the couple considered it their version of Goldfinger’s self-designed house, 2 Willow Road. It sits upon a plot originally intended for Britten’s first opera stage and spent years hidden among wild overgrown gardens. (It has since been restored by a new architect owner).
Today Aldeburgh remains home to a plenitude of music, literary and artistic delights, as well as appealing pastel-hued architecture and fantastic seafront fish restaurants. It’s also an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with the glorious River Alde winding through its heart, and a spectacular shingle beach. Thorpeness, which was built as a holiday resort in 1912, also has literary links (author J.M Barrie of Peter Pan was a regular visitor) and has plenty of jolly seaside activities on hand too. The towns are connected by a two-mile coastal path, an easy walk over the pebbled beaches. So, here’s our guide to the best of both – seagulls, good books and marshland walks included.
Maggi Hambling’s ‘The Scallop’ sculpture has become synonymous with Aldeburgh’s sweeping stretch of coastline. The Suffolk-born artist is best known for her emotive gestural seascape paintings, many of which she sold to fund the construction of this four-metre steel shell in 2003. The sculpture itself is an ode to Hambling’s inspiration, Benjamin Britten, an avid walker of the beach. Taking inspiration from his opera Peter Grimes it features a cut-inscription: ‘‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned”, which curves around the top of the shell. We suggest catching it at its best, at golden hour, when it glistens in the evening sunlight.
The River Alde is a waterway full of history, extraordinary geography and plenty of wildlife, an expanse of landscape dubbed an Area of Outstanding Beauty. The mouth of the Alde starts when it meets the Ore, just before the river passes through Snape and Iken. Here, it flows behind a remarkably thin shingle bank topped with several mighty Martello towers. Finally, it pours into the North Sea at the aptly named Shingle Street.
The Alde’s winding banks provide plenty of scenic walking routes, particularly at Slaughden Quay – once an important herring-fishing village. Now, there’s a marshland footpath with wide views of the estuary, which eventually opens on to Aldeburgh beach. Our tip: refuel here with fish and chips and a cold pint from White Hart Inn.
Benjamin Britten and his partner and muse, the tenor Peter Pears, moved into this idyllic 17th-century red-brick farmhouse in 1957. Set back from the bustle of the coast on five acres of pretty land, it was the couple’s creative sanctuary, where both spent their lives writing and composing away from the public eye.
Now Grade II-listed and formally known as The Red House, the home-turned-museum is spoken about in the same respectful terms as Jim Ede’s Kettle’s Yard. It’s now the headquarters of the Britten Pears Arts and many of its rooms have been left as if the two have only popped out for an afternoon stroll along the shingle. It also houses a music room and an archive filled with manuscripts and rare books, along with costume and set designs.
House in the Clouds is the dreamlike folly that playfully peeps above the trees and overlooks Thorpeness and the Meare – the village’s manmade boating pond (more on that later). It originally served as a water tower when it was built in 1932, but was cleverly disguised by its dark mock-Tudor cladding, so that it sits pretty with the rest of the Edwardian purpose-built village. It was later converted into a five-storey living space for the children’s author and poet Malcolm Mason. Today, it’s not only a magical piece of architecture to behold, but it can also be rented as a holiday home too.
You can’t miss the boxy sky-blue façade of The Regatta, the charming local restaurant with an atmosphere that matches Aldeburgh’s easy seaside charm. Its menu is full of wonderfully unfussy seafood dishes, with a specials board that often features the likes of dressed crab, wild seabass and seared tuna steak, along with whatever is comes in on the boats (you always can rely on seabream with plenty of samphire, or lobster doused in garlic butter).
The Suffolk is a quintessential beachfront restaurant that also has rooms. It’s the brainchild of the team behind London eatery L’Escargot, who recently tested the waters in Aldeburgh with the pop-up L’Escargot Sur Mer. The menu, inspired by the delicacies of the east coast, has been conjured up by chef James Jay: roasted langoustines, barbecued monkfish tail and oysters by the dozen from Orford’s Pinney are served within the sensitively restored 17th-century hotel just behind Crag Path.
“Anything fresher is still swimming” reads the old painted signs outside the collection of sheds dotted along Crag Path. And it’s true: the local fishermen head out at night and open up their shutters first thing in the morning. Along with the latest haul – expect smoked cockles, brown shrimp, kippers and haddock – they offer handy advice on how best to prepare, cook and serve.
Two Magpies is worth the queue on a Saturday morning. We say use your waiting time wisely, as it gives you a moment to decide on which of the indulgent handmade pastries, sandwiches and baked goods in the window you want. There’s coffee to go and (if there are any left) grab sourdough loaves to takeaway too. Enjoy your treats on the beach post-swim, but be warned: the local seagulls will be after a bite too.
If you’ve done the windswept walk across the shingle from Aldeburgh to Thorpeness, The Dolphin is where you’ll want to sit yourself down for a proper Sunday lunch, with a pint brewed locally at Adnams. The Dolphin is a local favourite, with a menu featuring dishes including king prawns with garlic butter and sourdough bread, Cajun cured mackerel with red-basil crème fraiche, alongside traditional pub classics. Its sibling, The Parrot, in nearby Aldringham, is equally as charming.
Letterpress studio Mabel & Co was founded by a creative couple after they produced a beautiful set of information cards to promote a weaving project. They were loved by locals so much that the small run turned into a new business venture.
The sustainably minded design studio sources either recycled or British materials where it can and uses lovingly restored printing equipment, such as their 1860 treadle press (purchased from eBay). Their studio and shop space is around the back of The Dolphin; head here to watch the mesmerising press in motion and browse the growing collection of handmade postcards, notebooks, archive boxes and witty notelets.
Thorpeness Emporium is an unassuming but brilliant old-school antiques hall. It’s small but sweet, with more than 30 traders creating a buzz, selling everything from clothes and kitchenalia to vintage theatre costumes and mid-century furniture. After a vintage rummage, enjoy a cup of tea or an ice cream in the quaint tearoom.
If you’re in pursuit of a beach read make a beeline for Reed Books. There’s not a shelf, corner or table left unfilled at this delightfully quaint book store. It’s one of the high street’s long-standing independent gems, best loved for its four-for-£10 bargain boxes outside. With such steals on offer, visitors often come away with a handful of weird and wonderful titles they never knew they needed.
Salter & King is a proper butchery with three generations’ worth of expertise. It has a considered range of pantry goods and organic veg, but the real deal is the pasture-fed meat, including free-range chicken from Sutton Hoo and classic Aldeburgh chipolatas that fit very well into a full English. On Sunday lunchtimes, Salters becomes a street-food situation, where grass-fed beef burgers are grilled to takeaway in soft floury buns.
There are hours of fun to be had on Aldeburgh’s pebbled beach. Besides collecting adder stones, available in abundance to the beady eyed, there’s a fantastic lookout tower to climb, a lifeboat station with the occasional drill to watch and – of course – the sea to dip in (only for the brave in winter). If you’re short on time, however, even a walk from one end to the other refreshes the soul. When you’re standing on the beach, looking up at the row of pastel-coloured Victorian seafront villas is as good a view than any postcard’s.
Cultural hub Snape Maltings is a relatively quick cycle from the centre of Aldeburgh, or a decent walk away if you’ve got the gear. What you’ll be met with at the other end however is an afternoon filled with creative browsing.
The Maltings originally produced malted grain for beer and whisky making, with its location on the river meaning produce could travel by boat straight into London. Now modestly restored, the former factory buildings are filled with independent shops and galleries, an antiques centre and a concert hall that hosts the annual Aldeburgh Festival of Music and Arts. The Plough & Sail pub serves a brilliant lunch, while the cafes have expansive views across the marshland, which is dotted with sculptures by Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Ryan Gander.
Thorpeness was put on the map by Scottish playwright Stuart Glencairn Ogilvie. At the turn of the early 20th century, he populated the once-remote village (soon to be connected with a railway line, later removed) with a picturesque mass of Jacobean-esque holiday cottages, a country club, a golf course and a boating lake. He invited his friends and family to come and stay, turning Thorpeness into a private resort for a very jubliant British holiday.
The lake itself was built by local craftsmen, covering 60 acres. There are little islands across the water (each named by J.M Barrie) that you can moor up to and explore – keep your eyes peeled for the faux crocodiles and tigers at large. Both the village and lake still operate in the ways Ogilvie intended and many of the colourful wooden boats are named after the craftsmen who helped to build the village. At only 3ft, it’s fairly shallow – making it perfect for all ages to canoe and kayak.
