Due Southport: Holidays In A Vintage English Seaside Town

Apr 2 2009 By Lucy Collins, Surrey Herald

SITTING in a bubbling hot tub sipping a spicy chilli martini and caressed by the sea air, I am the mistress of all I survey, far beyond a few squawking seagulls looping the loop on some stiff north-west breezes.

It's hard to believe I'm in sedate Southport, on England's north-west coast, which is undergoing a multi-million pound regeneration to recapture the style of Britain's golden age of seaside holidays.

The Victorian pier has enjoyed a sparkling facelift, a range of boutiques are designed to lure affluent shoppers back to Lord Street, the town's high street, which retains some of its original Victorian grandeur, and around £1million went on the impressive new Eco Visitor Centre.

But the boldest initiative is the £15million lavished on The Vincent Hotel, a six-storey designer's dream decked out in white, grey and black, which promises "Manhattan-style chic in the North-West, with uber-cool rooms, contemporary decor and cutting-edge design".

The launch party last summer attracted regional megastars including football greats Steven Gerrard and Kenny Dalglish and a galaxy of familiar faces from Coronation Street and Brookside.

Standard rooms start at £175 per night, but I had been promised the real VIP package. From the cream marble lobby, we were whisked up to our home for the next two nights, the £695-a-night penthouse.

Jude Law stayed there recently while filming an advertisement at the beach. If it was good enough for the sexy Jude, then it was good enough for me and my mum.

However, it was very masculine, which I found rather presumptuous. My mum thought it was the sort of place a man might take his girlfriend for a rather gymnastic weekend adventure. There was certainly lots and lots of black lacquered wood, grey slate walls and an enormous bed.

On the wall was a sexy photograph taken by Tony McGee, a fashion photographer after whom the hotel bar was named.

McGee's ballerina photographs feature on the pop art-style canvas sliding curtains in some of the 60 bedrooms, and his images of India greet you on every floor when you step out of the lift.

In the morning, the room was superbly light and airy on account of the full-length glass wall overlooking Lord Street. In the evening, it was buzzy and beautifully lit by a ceiling of white teapot lights.

Step outside the lovely environs of The Vincent, however, and the glitzy atmosphere begins to unravel.

Despite the money invested so far, the seafront was something of a work in progress. The walk there was marred by a retail complex, and an ugly concrete wall separated the promenade from the beach, where grass was taking a hold.

Silcock's Funlands, at the entrance to the mile-long pier, is a fraction of the size of the original fun-fair, which entranced my mum as a girl.

The Vincent, along with the artdeco Midland Hotel in dismal Morecambe further up the coast, is doing its bit to revitalise the British love affair with seaside towns.

The vision and boldness which created the hotel are remarkable. But it may take a year or two for the town to follow the lead and become the 'Brighton of the North-West'- the image Adams had in mind when he embarked on his amazing project.