The beautiful beach that looks as though ‘Notting Hill was moved to the seaside’

An Essex seaside location has been compared to Notting Hill, after dozens of beach huts were painted in bright pastel colours, reminiscent of the houses in the west London district. 

Brightlingsea Beach, right next to the River Colne, has its own stretch of beach huts, which reminded tourists of the streets around Portobello Market as neat rows of huts were painted in the colours of the rainbow.

The area has become a destination for families to spend a day out together, with the flat sandy beach lending itself to plenty of activities, such as swimming, windsurfing canoeing and crab hunting.

The beach has gathered plenty of adoring reviews, with one visitor writing: “Really lovely walk along the beach, nice and quiet with stunning views. Great for all the family whilst still being very relaxing. Would return!”

Another wrote: “This was our 1st visit – and it won’t be our last! We hopped on the ferry from Mersea to spend the day here whilst camping and what a lovely place! We walked down from the marina to this beach and it was such a lovely walk, people out walking their dogs, enjoying a drink outside their beach hut, children crabbing, all happy & very friendly.

“The beach itself was clean with a big walled area where children could safely play in the sea water and a further bouyed off area for swimming. We had a lovely day here and will visit again, (next time we plan to include a session at the Lido too which looked like a lot of fun!).”

In the meantime, nearby Tendring beach has seen somewhat of a hut-related controversy recently. 

The proposed changes to hut licences, introduced by Tendring District Cuncil to improve the security of tenure, are being contested by hut owners via a petition.

The petition, which amassed 164 valid signatures, states: “No evidence has been provided to substantiate claims of problems incurred by a lack of security of tenure due to the existing licensing system.”

At a cabinet meeting on July 11, it was agreed that the next practicable date for a cabinet meeting to discuss the issue would be October 6 this year.