Is Beccles the perfect small town?

 

Beccles from the River Waveney

What do you want from a town where you live? According to Lewis Mumford, cities should combine technology with cooperation and collaboration. Given that Mumford was writing in 1961, what he meant by “technology” was perhaps not as forbidding as it might sound today. I don’t think he was referring to high-speed broadband. 

So there we were, walking around Beccles, a medium-sized market town in Suffolk, with a population of around 14,000 That makes it around the tenth-largest town in Suffok (Ipswich is the largest, with 145,000). That makes it large enough to have several restaurants and cafes, as well as, intriguingly, an open-air lido (brought back to life by community initiative) and a locally owned pub (the Lock Inn, at Geldeston). 

So what makes a town alive? You can explore various criteria. Beccles has a lovely library, a haven of peace, and still open (and in use) at 5pm on a Friday.

Beccles has a great café, serving its own chocolate, and exceptional cakes, with an enclosed garden where robins bathe in the fountains. It has a delicatessen selling local cheese. It has both a new and a second-hand bookshop.  

Most importantly, people talk to you! Without exception, everyone in local shops started chatting. Even the local boat-owners on the quayside, as well as the man piloting the Big Dog Ferry along the Waveney, and the friendly volunteers staffing the (free) Beccles Museum. You couldn’t ask for more. There seemed to be a fair number of buses (an hourly service to Norwich and to Southwold), plus that rarity, a local railway station. OK, it only goes to Lowestoft or to Ipswich, but better than nothing.

Within 24 hours, we had been told where to buy plants, where to eat, where to stay, the state of local politics (seems like the Greens are very active), and what kinds of second-hand books sell (apparently, blind-date books, wrapped in brown paper, so you don't know what you are buying).

The town has a fascinating series of alleyways, called Scores, that lead down the hill to the water. Often the obscured view is better than the actual view.

Were there any downsides? Yes, the traffic. Like many small towns with a historic centre, the council has opted to make the small roads one way only. This has the unintended side-effect of making the traffic go faster, in the absence of any oncoming vehicles. So instead of the hoped-for tranquility, you get cars at 40mph in the centre – not a calming sensation. Doesn’t really encourage open-air street life. The view below, with S S Teulon’s solid and respectable three-storey Barclays Bank in the distance, is not typical.

Yet there is one wonderful street that is pedestrians only, outside the Kings Head hotel and pub. Although the tables and chairs are only for the pub, the effect, even though it is only a few yards long, is palpable. There was even a street musician playing for the entertainment of passers-by.

All in all, a fascinating town.