But coastal erosion is about to spell the end to what for some is an idyll, to others an eyesore.
Teetering on the cliff edge at Skipsea, in Holderness, "shanty town" is a collection of some 40 properties – some tidy, others ramshackle, their paint peeling away, and one apparently abandoned and with door agape after the last big blow.
"A backwater for connoisseurs of seclusion", none has gas, electricity or even running water.
For some of their owners they are holiday homes or summer retreats, a chance to step out of your back door and gaze out at an ever-changing seascape, and the long chalky white curve of Flamborough Head in the distance.
Just five people live there permanently.
Large sections of shanty town have already been devoured by the sea – there used to be three or four rows of dwellings – but now high tide is coming perilously close to the very last one.
East Riding councillors yesterday paved the way for as many as 23 replacement buildings to be built just inland on a stretch of rough grassland in communal ownership.
Some of the replacements will be log cabins – with one eco-friendly design standing out as being true to the Shantytown recycling spirit – a circular building made of straw bales with a lime render finish, a "living" sedum roof and composting toilets.
After councillors voted unanimously to approve the applications, planning consultant Chris Kendall, of Hickling Gray Associates, said residents needed to act soon. "If they don't they are going to fall off. It's a very good day for the residents because at long last they have details of their houses approved and they can now start their relocation.
"I think there will be fewer buildings – and they won't be built of bits of found wood and whatever.
"Skipsea Parish Council will get what it wants and the site will be tidied up.
"The stuff on the clifftop will go; one of the requirements is that when you build one you clear one, so it won't be a case of one being abandoned."
David Sykes moved from Leeds, where he worked for 22 years in the Pittards tanner, to Skipsea.
He lives alone with his border collie Frankie and has the long rollers of the North Sea as a backdrop to his cliff-top garden.
He believes there is still a good 10 years left in his clifftop home, just 20ft from the edge, and is not planning to move.
"You'll never find anywhere like this again. It's just amazing. You can't get closer to the sea can you?"
The parish council is hoping the new buildings will look tidier than the present collection.
But Mr Sykes thinks shanty town's unique character will alter if they move inland. "This is the way it's always been. Everyone does their own thing and that's it. If it has to change it will spoil it."
Chairman of Skipsea Parish Council Mike McCann said: "There are some nice people up there, but it's a mess on the cliff edge; there's no other way to describe it.
"There are bits of wood and all sorts going over the cliff edge. It would be nice to see some form of accommodation that's reasonably uniform that doesn't detract from the area."