It’s Friday night and a DJ is playing Ibiza tracks at Coast Cafe. Beyond the open doors, drinkers sip Aperol Spritz at tables on the pebble Sussex beach and fire jugglers ready themselves for sunset. It could be Brighton, but it isn’t. This is 10 miles west, in the UK’s most famous seaside town’s less fashionable neighbour: Worthing. This lively end-of-week scene is just one of the hints that the town’s sleepy retirement image is a thing of the past.
A few metres further along the front, Crabshack serves up excellent seafood on raw-wood benches and an outdoor deck strung with lights. On the other side of the pier, the town’s ugly multi-storey car park now sports an al fresco food court, erected during the pandemic on the jutting roof of level one. In deckchairs on artificial grass, groups still gather for seaview sundowners and wood-fired pizza.
The town has been enlivened by a shift in demographic, as younger people priced out of its city neighbour have moved up the coast
Though there are microbreweries and cocktail bars besides, not all the town’s newer diversions involve eating and drinking. In the 1930s chalet studios beside Coast Café, East Beach, you can buy direct from resident artists. Inspired, near the pier, also sells clothing and homewares sporting cheery graphics dreamt up by local designer-makers, while there’s an artists’ hub with frequent exhibitions at Colonnade House. On summer Saturdays here, you can catch free family-friendly outdoor performances from international talent as part of the town’s annual festival of contemporary circus and theatre (until 10 September).
It’s still a way off from Brighton’s much-referenced “London-on-sea” vibe, with Worthing considerably smaller – but that also makes it more intimate, less crowded. The town has been enlivened by a shift in demographic, as younger people priced out of its city neighbour have moved up the coast.
New restaurant Perch on the Pier has rejuvenated the city’s Art Deco pier
(Perch on the Pier)
In 2018, Worthing launched its own Pride festival; in the same year, resident Kenny Tutt won BBC’s MasterChef, ignoring Brighton’s thriving foodie scene to establish his first restaurant Pitch in his up-and-coming hometown. Tutt’s family moved down from London 25 years ago, having been frequent visitors to Worthing’s “quintessential British beaches”.
The chef remarks: “I always remember my Dad taking a big gulp of fresh sea air when we pulled up….
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