Etymology
Bognor began as Bucgan Ora – ‘Bucge’s Shore’ – named after its (very probably) female Saxon founder, making it one of the rare Old English placenames of female provenance. The suffix Regis was added in 1929 after George V convalesced in the resort. The town’s unfortunate first syllable has prompted periodic calls to rename it ‘Regis-on-Sea’, though it could have been worse: an early recorded form of Bucgan Ora was the even less appealing Buggenore.
Which brings to mind the same king’s supposed last words, when it was suggested on his deathbed that he might return to Bognor in the hope that the sea air would help him recover. Anecdotally, his retort to his private secretary was “Bugger Bognor!”, though official records suggest his final utterance was aimed at his nurse: “God damn you”.
History For centuries Bognor was a small fishing village, its flat beaches and mild climate drawing early Georgian holidaymakers. By the late 18th century Sir Richard Hotham was promoting it as a genteel seaside resort, building villas and optimistically renaming it Hothampton – a branding exercise that never quite took (but perhaps should have). The railway brought Victorian crowds from 1864, followed by Edwardian promenades, bathing machines and, later, the rise of 20th-century holiday camps. The most famous of them all, Butlin’s – “a week’s holiday for a week’s pay!” – opened in Bognor in 1960 and remains one of only three still going strong, its ten-peaked Big Top dominating the town’s low-rise skyline.
After decades of drift, exacerbated by cheap bucket-flight travel, Bognor has begun to find its footing again. Regeneration money has steadied the seafront; the pier and promenade feel livelier; independent cafés and small creative ventures have crept into the gaps left by the old holiday economy. With British tourists increasingly favouring staycations, surely the future is positive.
Even the fishermen are back, with a couple of boats operating again off the beach near the pier, benefitting from post-Brexit controls on European fleets.
Nonetheless, Bognor Regis was named by Which? in July as ‘Britain’s worst seaside town’ for the second year running. We would contend this is rather unfair – perhaps it’s something about that name? – because with its fine, groyne-divided beaches and kiss-me-quick charm, the town certainly warrants a day-trip. And if you fall for the place and fancy adding yourself to its 25,000 population (rising to around 68,000 if you include the villages of Felpham and Aldwick within the same urban area), its housing stock is moderately priced for the south coast: terraced houses average £284,000 compared with £540,000 in Brighton.
Cultural history
Between 1800 and 1803, William Blake lived in a cottage in Felpham (then a separate village, now effectively a genteel suburb of Bognor), where he worked on the poem Jerusalem. As we reported in ROSA #16, the Blake Cottage Trust has been painstakingly reconstructing the until-recently dilapidated cottage so it can become a museum dedicated to the visionary poet and artist, in time for his bicentenary in 2027. On our last visit in August, the cottage looked splendid – the fabric restored, the roof re-thatched – and by all accounts the work is progressing exactly to plan. While you’re in Felpham (pronounced ‘fel-fam’), make sure to visit St Mary’s Church, dating back to the 12th century, with its stained-glass window dedicated to Blake, consecrated in 2011.
Another famous visitor to Bognor was the Irish novelist James Joyce, who spent the summer of 1923 in the resort while working on the early stages of Finnegans Wake. He tacitly reveals in the novel that he came up with the name of its protagonist, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, after spotting a gravestone bearing that surname in the churchyard at nearby Sidlesham. It is also claimed that his rendition of the cry of Bognor seagulls – ‘quark’ – inspired physicist Murray Gell-Mann’s naming of subatomic particles in 1963, presumably after managing to reach page 383 of the book, a major feat in itself. A blue plaque marks the house Joyce stayed in, on Clarence Road.
On a rather more popular note, it was the view of Bognor across the bay from Selsey beach that inspired composer Eric Coates to write the orchestral piece By the Sleepy Lagoon in 1930, which was adapted for the opening music of Desert Island Discs, unchanged since the show made its debut in 1942.
Culture
Nobody, it’s fair to say, goes to Bognor today for its high-level cultural offerings – though that may be about to change, and not just because of Blake Cottage. The Alexandra Arts Centre, the flagship project of the Regis Rejuvenation scheme, is rising on the site of the former Alexandra Theatre and is due to open in spring 2027, with the main structure already up. Arun Council promises it will be a major cultural hub, drawing a more sophisticated crowd to the town, to engage with its programme of theatre, comedy, arthouse cinema, visual art exhibitions and more. Meanwhile, the Regis School of Music hosts regular classical music events in its intimate Recital Hall.
Otherwise, Bognor’s cultural attractions are less highbrow than gloriously eccentric. It’s well worth visiting the resort’s free-entry museum, which majors on artefacts from Bognor’s history as a holiday destination: mid-century posters advertising the town, saucy postcards and cabinets of splendidly tacky souvenirs. Best of all is a video highlighting the inordinate number of films and TV shows made or partially set in Bognor – from the pioneering efforts of Cecil Hepworth to the punk-ethic independent movies of Kevin Short, and including The Punch and Judy Man (1963, starring Tony Hancock) and Wish You Were Here (1987, starring Emily Lloyd). Also featured is the short-lived ITV quiz show Bognor or Bust (2004), in which celebrity contestants vied for a top-notch foreign holiday, with the booby prize being a weekend in Bognor.
Fittingly, then, the town boasts a splendid Grade II-listed four-screen cinema, the Picturedrome, which has shown movies since 1919, having previously served as an Assembly Rooms. The building – with its prominent octagonal lantern tower – was designed by local architect Arthur Smith in 1886 and is the first thing you see as you exit the railway station. Until 1964 the Picturedrome played second fiddle to the theatre and cinema at the end of Bognor Pier; storms in that year and the next swept away the jetty’s end, leaving it barely a third of its original length and only just reaching the sea at low tide. Nowadays the most pressing entertainment option on the 160-year-old pier is a game of tuppenny cascade in its busy arcade. Once you’ve run out of coppers, nearby Hotham Park is worth a visit, with its boating lake, miniature railway and 18-hole putting green.
Food and Drink
When we last visited in August, we were disappointed to find that two establishments on our list of recommendations had recently closed down: the award-winning ice-cream parlour Pink’s, and the cider-specialising Dog & Duck @ The Claremont. This suggests there’s still some way to go before Bognor turns the corner it is surely soon to turn.
We can recommend gelatos at Sweet Flamingo (beside the Alexandra Arts Centre) and coffee at The Beach (on the seafront) and, if you want to walk up a hunger, an award-winning steak and stilton pie from Turner’s Pies. It’s also worth the 20-minute walk along the Esplanade to Felpham Beach for cocktails or cool beers at Blake’s Bar and Beach Terrace, and lunch at The Lobster Pot, where we enjoyed their ‘Seafood Box’ – a generous mix of fried seafood, French fries, salad and aioli – at a table overlooking the shingly beach.
Not far away is The Fox Inn, serving traditional pub grub with a more adventurous specials board; this popular tavern has just extended its outdoor space by opening a suntrap yard overlooking Blake Cottage. In August 1803, Blake frogmarched the drunken dragoon John Schofield from his cottage garden to the Fox, leading to a charge of sedition from which he was, thankfully, eventually acquitted. If you’re looking for a sit-down, several-course evening meal, the family-run Italian restaurant Fino’s, on the main road towards Littlehampton, fits the bill.
Accommodation
Bognor’s pleasantly uncrowded, groyne-sheltered shingle beaches – with stretches of sand at low tide – remain the resort’s main attraction, so it’s worth seeking out accommodation with a sea view. Felpham provides the best answer at the Beachcroft Hotel, which sits directly on the beach and offers four ‘luxury beach hut suites’ with mezzanine bedrooms and smell-the-brine terraces.
In Bognor itself, the Grade II-listed Royal Norfolk Hotel, central to the town’s rise as a fashionable Victorian resort, still looks rather splendid, even if the unicorn on its crest has lost its head. Each year the hotel hosts a Puppet Party (this year on September 28) on its broad lawn, celebrating Bognor’s rich history of ventriloquists, marionettes and Punch & Judy shows. That’s the way to do it.