What’s going for it? What will future historians make of Littlehampton? It’s a curious place, stitched together from various patches that align but somehow don’t connect. At its centre, an old Sussex port on the River Arun, church, quayside, winding lanes and still intact. To the south, facing the sea, a 19th-century resort from the era when salt water and bracing breezes were the cure for all ills. To the west, the dunes and silence of Atherington beach. East? 1920s and 1930s private estates of luxury villas, high walls and climbing roses, as if the upper crust cast of various Agatha Christie whodunnits had settled en masse. Laid over the top, a layer of 1930s to 1960s municipal seasideness – seawalls, proms, concrete, the marvellous bleached-white shelters of Mewsbrook Park, the miniature railway terminus. Here and there, arrivals from the era of regeneration and seaside gentrification (Littlehampton has never quite become the new Margate), designed by assorted young and star architects. It makes for bizarre juxtapositions, surreal even. Littlehampton is a curious place. But all the better for it.
The case against… That English south-coast bleakness, the sea often “indistinguishable from the sky”, as Virginia Woolf once put it. Still old-fashioned, in good and bad senses.
Well connected? Trains: half hourly to Brighton 53 mins (there’s a more frequent train to Hove, around 36 mins) and to London Victoria (1hr 45mins) via Gatwick Airport (1hr 12 mins); hourly to Chichester (17mins) and Portsmouth (57mins) Driving: you’re a few minutes from the A27 dual carriageway. Brighton can be 50mins away, Chichester 30mins, Portsmouth 45mins.
Schools Primaries: River Beach, White Meadows, St Catherine’s Catholic, Summerlea and East Preston are all “good”, says Ofsted. Secondaries: Littlehampton Academy “requires improvement”.
Hang out at… Will it be East Beach Cafe, by one hot architecture firm (Heatherwick Studio), or West Beach Cafe, by another (Asif Khan)? Choices, choices.
Where to buy Got a million or two? Then East Preston’s for you, preferably the seafront. This end of town is full of private estates of weighty villas. It’s all a bit Southfork, though you may spot some more affordable options (they tend to be smaller bungalows). Rustington is more affordable. I prefer the older town. There’s a little village heart around Church Street and towards the river and quayside. And by Beach Road and around, late Victorians and Edwardian townhouses. A spot of Regency on South Terrace. Large detacheds and townhouses, £450,000-£3.5m. Detacheds and smaller townhouses, £275,000-£450,000. Semis, £225,000-£500,000. Terraces and cottages, £200,000-£500,000. Flats, £80,000-£500,000. Rentals: a one-bedroom flat, £500-£700pcm; a three-bedroom house, £900-£1,400pcm.
Bargain of the week A very pretty four-bedroom 19th-century flint cottage in the town centre, £295,000 with glyn-jones.com.
From the streets
Geraldine Blake “Portuguese Grill: lovely, friendly staff. And Littlehampton ferry: loads of fun for all the family. Crosses the River Arun and takes you up to Arundel.”
Steve Bentley “For an excellent curry, try Raj Doot, looking out on to the river Arun. A gem.”
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