Redcar: The forgotten seaside town where you can buy a property for as little as £20k
Redcar has changed dramatically over the years. It started out as being part of the North Ridings, then it was part of Teeside, then Cleveland and now it's North Yorkshire. Despite once being a thriving seaside resort full of industrial heritage, business owners said it has been largely forgotten.
The house prices may have crept up in recent times, but a property near the seafront went for as little as £20,000.
It's a tale of two halves. The seafront has seen significant investment in recent years, with a £1.6m ‘vertical pier’, The Beacon, being built, while the town centre has seen a large number of closed shops and amusement arcades.
In recent years, the government has awarded £25m to revive Redcar, which will include the Victorian train station, the Esplanade, and the High Street. It has already seen the reopening of The Regent Cinema with staggering views of the sea.
Mike, the owner of Mike's Cafe on High Street, said that currently, however, the town centre is dying.
He said: “We've lost Wilkinsons, we've lost Chiltern Mills, and in the last couple of months we’ve lost the two charity shops over the road and a beautician's next door.”
Mike said that running a business nowadays is “hard work” with the latest wage increases and VAT.
Despite the demise of many shops and businesses in the town centre and on the seafront, Mike said it’s the people who make Redcar.
He said: “I got burgled twice last year, and the community rallied around to help. It meant a lot.”
Mike said that Redcar has “drastically changed” over the past 40 years, but property prices remain low.
He said: “You can buy a little bedsit or flat for £20,000.”
Redcar has some surviving and thriving businesses such as Amandos restaurant, Pacittos, a variety of micropubs, and The Regent Cinema, which has been rebuilt, explained Mike.
He said: “Pacittos on the seafront, home of the famous lemon top, are absolutely fabulous, you can’t beat Redcar for lemon tops.”
Pacittos on the Esplanade is located next to its own home-made ice cream factory, a Lemon Top Gallery, and an adjoining art gallery.
Elise Garbutt, who works at Pacittos said: “Redcar has changed massively. We used to have the horizontal pier, and now we’ve got the vertical pier (now known as The Beacon). Redcar does keep a lot of its traditions, especially in terms of local businesses.”
Elise moved back to Redcar and returned to working in Pacittos following a ten-year sabbatical due to having a baby and going to university.
She said: “House prices are dramatically cheaper than in the Midlands and down south.”
Elise added that there’s a lot of new build estates now away from the seafront with house prices in line with other areas in the North East.”
According to the Office for National Statistics, the average house price in Redcar is £148,000.
Elise said living in Redcar is cheap, with plenty of things to do.
She said: “The beach, you can walk to the top of The Beacon to see the whole of Redcar, and the new Regent Cinema is brilliant and cheaper than the chains.”
Next door to Pacittos is a building site as regeneration work has just started to ‘transform’ Redcar’s town centre, creating a fitting link from the centre to the seafront. One local however, said people are frustrated with the “ugly” building work and the slowness of the much-needed change to the area.