Wandering in Whitehaven

I have a special place in my heart for long forgotten, slightly crumbly seaside towns and one I’ve always wanted to visit is Whitehaven. I’d never quite made it up there, so I was chuffed to bits to find the town was a mere seven miles from our hotel (about which I blogged here in my post about our thrifty mini break) in the beautiful Lake District. After breakfast we hopped in the car and headed towards Whitehaven. We didn’t have plans or any idea of what to expect so parked at the first convenient spot and set about exploring.

Whitehaven was once the third largest port in the UK and became prosperous over a number of years due to both maritime links and later, the coal industry. The town, laid out in a grid system which was apparently the model for New York, is awash with beautiful Georgian architecture, much of which is splashed with pastel paint and trimmed with small pops of colour. Over 250 of the buildings in Whitehaven town centre are listed buildings and you can really understand why when you’re walking the streets. They’re filled with character and charm, although many of the buildings are in a sad state of disrepair. The town isn’t big but it makes for a nice mid morning meander through the streets and lanes. Whitehaven isn’t really a touristy town and despite the sun high in the sky we had the town pretty much to ourselves to stroll around and just be a bit nosy. Exploring the streets and admiring the houses is helped by the fact that Whitehaven is blue plaque central.

Who knew Whitehaven was home to George Washington’s grandmother and Gulliver’s Travels author Jonathan Swift’s nanny kidnapped him as a child and took him to Whitehaven for 3 years? We nipped in and out of a few small shops and lunched in a small organic cafe, of which the name now escapes me, before taking a 2 minute walk to the harbour area. Whitehaven harbour is the only place in the UK to have been attacked by Americans when John Paul Jones attacked and you can see by the scale of the marina that Whitehaven’s maritime efforts were once was a force to be reckoned with. We really enjoyed gently wandering in Whitehaven on a bright sunny day and would love to go back. We encountered some really friendly people who were only too willing to point us in the right direction or have a bit of a chat. Whitehaven, you’re lovely.