If there was a reinvention league for British seaside resorts, the
once-prosperous Victorian town of Ilfracombe on the North Devon coast would
probably be near the bottom. It has has been engaged in a 40-year battle for
reinvention from the time that cheap package holidays first became widely
available.
The best place to look for signs of change in Ilfracombe is Torrs Park, a
steep residential street winding away from the seafront. There is already
one boutique B&B on the road - Westwood, an excellent small hotel taken
over by a couple of London émigrés. It is definitely more Cape Cod than fish
and chips. Next door, another B&B has been snapped up, and the makeover
could be yet more dramatic given the identity of the new owner: Damien
Hirst. The artist already owns a large house in the North Devon countryside
and the restaurant Number 11 The Quay - hitherto the main evidence of
Ilfracombe's reinvention. That he is said to have paid £450,000 for the
Torrs Park property has confirmed local suspicions that Hirst plans to
emulate the West Country ventures of the chefs Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein.
In Padstow, Stein took a similarly unglamorous but beautifully situated
fishing village and created “Padstein”; down the coast, Oliver has opened
Fifteen Cornwall in Watergate Bay.
“Suspicions” may make it sound as if the folk of Ilfracombe are
celebrity-averse and grumbling about the prospect of Kate Moss wandering
around the quay in hotpants. Not a bit of it. One estate agent
enthusiastically passes on a rumour that Robbie Williams is interested in an
apartment in a converted hotel project. Close by, in Appledore, the Jackson
family have their high-profile rented barn. Nearby Braunton's claim to fame
is that the song Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star was written there. For an area
used to seeing itself described as quiet, obscure and even slightly
depressed, this part of the Devon coast needs all the starriness it can get.
Ilfracombe is one of those resorts that had a sparkling 19th century and a
gloomy 20th. The evidence of prosperous Victorian gaiety remains in the
housing stock and the public buildings. The town is wonderfully located
between the moors and the sea, but it lacks a proper beach - unless you
count the bathing pools, reached by an ingenious network of tunnels
constructed by Welsh miners in the 1820s. As well as the decline in the
traditional bucket-and-spade holiday, the town had to absorb an extensive
programme of inner-city relocation the 1990s. The town's image, appearance
and crime rates suffered.
The new century started more promisingly, with the unveiling of a regeneration
plan in 2001. Aided by the Hirst effect, the town began to attract investors
looking for the next West Coast hotspot. The opening of the Taw Bridge near
Barnstaple in 2007 made access to Cornwall and rest of the North Devon coast
much easier. A new ferry link across the Bristol Channel to South Wales is
planned, and the harbour is to be redeveloped. But commuters will not find
Ilfracombe particularly convenient. The route to the M5 is protected by
Exmoor, and Bristol is 1 hours away. In effect, Ilfracombe is a
change-of-life destination pitched at second-home owners and those who want
to try out a new life in the country.
There is a range of properties to attract these buyers, from isolated country
cottages to swish penthouses to imposing Victorian townhouses born at the
time of Ilfracombe's greatest prosperity. Properties at the top of the
market are in nearby Woolacombe, where a detached house with a view over its
fine, long beach - frequently awarded the prize of Britain's best - commands
£750,000. In Ilfracombe itself, five or six-bedroom properties in half an
acre have been expected to sell for £600,000; for a detached three-bedroom
house, £375,000. For pop stars and anyone else looking at one of the
high-profile hotel conversions in Ilfracombe, such as the Granville,
two-bedroom apartments sold well around the £250,000 mark.
Karl Seeley, of the estate agent Bond Oxborough Phillips, is commendably frank
about the town's immediate prospects. “It's a long-term investment. You
should look at five to ten years, then you'll see some really dramatic
improvements in the town,” he says. The high street is anything but Anytown
UK, and while some campaigners may applaud the absence of the usual high
street chains, some settlers may find the drive to the nearest supermarket
irksome. Parking for the shops isn't easy either.
The local property market is currently flatter than a windless day in the
Bristol Channel. But places such as Ilfracombe may be able to count
themselves as members of the silver lining club if the prediction that many
Britons will reject foreign holidays and take a break at home comes true.
North Devon has an enormous amount to commend it to a “blow-in”: walking,
surfing beaches, some of the country's best golf courses (Saunton Golf Club
and Royal North Devon Golf Club are both near by), and much less of the
seasonal racket that you find in either Newquay or St Ives. Perhaps what
Ilfracombe needs most is a new brand. Padstein did it for Padstow, but
Hirstville or Damienstown don't sound quite right. Perhaps Half Shark Bay
will do the trick.
Tale of two towns
Property prices in Ifracombe have risen 61 per cent over the past five years
to an average of £192,362, according to Halifax
. Prices are up 0.2 per cent in the past 12 months.
Prices are an average £356,922 in Padstow - up 7 per cent in a year, and 72
per cent over five.
Property in Ilfracombe now costs on average £148 a sq ft - compared with £272
in Padstow, Hometrack data shows.
A detached home in Ilfracombe costs on average £271,800 and an apartment
£130,000.
In Padstow a detached house costs £544,000 on average and an apartment
£392,500.