Bugger Bognor!

[Sporting]

I've never been to Bognor Regis. Have I missed much? I know it has a funny name, is known for a probably apocryphal quote referenced in the title, but my most recent (online) exposure to the place came courtesy of an excellent early Steptoe and Son episode:

Around 27 minutes they are in Bognor. Has it changed much? What memories do you have of Bognor?

[DCI Harry Batt]

Bognor is where they do that people jumping off the pier in ridiculous wing-type get-ups competition thingy, isn't it?

The beach is sandier than Brighton.

Umm...

[tee rex]

Exeter City supporters have no memory whatsoever of Bognor Regis, and we'd prefer to leave it that way.

[Capybara]

I went there for an FA Trophy game v Hereford 15 years ago. I don't recall it being either pleasant or unpleasant but it was December so hard to tell. There being no Guide pub (there still isn't) meant we used the 'spoons. Hereford won 7-1.

[Toby Gymshorts]

TLMG and I had a break in Worthing last year (which turned out to be lovely) and on one of the days decided to drive to Chichester in the morning for a look around, then onto Bognor.

After staying a bit longer than we intended, and with me being a bit tired of driving, we went to Littlehampton instead (which was on a circuitous route back to Worthing, and not as far). Littlehampton is very quiet, and I've still never been to Bognor.

That is pretty much all I have to say on the subject.

[Benjm]

I've been going to the Butlins in Bognor for a music festival for the last four Januarys until this one just gone. The out of season holiday camp is great fun. The town centre and sea front seem pretty grim but that might just be the time of year.

[ad hoc]

Home of Arthur Sultan, the Surrey Mystic

[longeared]

Had some overpriced fish and chips on the beach there 15 years back. Then we went through Brighton and ticked off the Seaford branch.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Bognor is a fairly average South Coast seaside town, from memory. Literally bog-standard. The aforementioned Butlins is about the only thing that makes it slightly unusual. Handy for short trips to Arundel, Chichester, the South Downs and Selsey though.

Checking out retirement locations, Sporting?

[DCI Harry Batt]

Did we go to the Butlins there, when we were youngish? No, a caravan. Was there a fire at the Woolworths? There was, I'm pretty sure of it. It's all coming back to me now.

[Sporting]

Checking out retirement locations, Sporting?

Retirement? You having a laff?

[DCI Harry Batt]

I probably went to our friendly there in July 2005, but I don't remember. I think I didn't go to our Conference South game there in January 2009, but I'm not completely sure about that either.

[NHH]

I missed the friendly in 2005, because the kick-off was moved because of a wedding IIRC, so as we got off the train into Bognor, people were getting on who'd been to the match. We also had a friendly in 2012 too, as a remember being there with my youngest daughter in a sling.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I missed the friendly in 2005, because the kick-off was moved because of a wedding IIRC, so as we got off the train into Bognor, people were getting on who'd been to the match. We also had a friendly in 2012 too, as a remember being there with my youngest daughter in a sling.

We moved the kickoff and didn't tell you? How rude. Sorry.

Confirmation that I did have a family holiday in a caravan in Bognor, in 1978 - one of those split holiday affairs, with mum the first half of the week and dad the second, after they'd split up see. And it was Woolies that burned.

[slackster]

Saw Orient down there in the FA Trophy 3 years ago (a 2-1 aet win), but that was just a drive in/out visit. I don’t think I’ve ever spent any time in the resort other than that, though plenty of trips and holidays to nearby places over the years.

[Billy Casper]

Before reading this thread the only things I could have told you about the place is a) it's on the coast b) in the south c) but not in Cornwall.

[MsD]

My sister moved there a year or two before she died. It was nice - her bit of beach was two miles or so out from the main town. I have friends in Littlehampton and surrounds, Arundel and so on, and it seems quite pleasant but very white.

[Gangster Octopus]

Before reading this thread the only things I could have told you about the place is a) it's on the coast b) in the south c) but not in Cornwall.

Yup. I really don't know the south coast of England.

[My Name Is Ian]

Bognor is where they do that people jumping off the pier in ridiculous wing-type get-ups competition thingy, isn't it?

That was Worthing and Bognor, though they haven't done it at all since 2015. Something about rising costs, apparently.

Bognor has got a decent football ground, though it's a long way from the station. I went to that Bognor vs Wimbledon match in 2009, had a bit too much to drink, and got hopelessly lost trying to get back to the station afterwards. It was bitterly, bitterly cold.

The town centre is a bit tattier than round here (Worthing) generally, though. We got chased out of Bognor railway station by a station employee shouting "AND DON'T COME BACK", once. I have zero recollection of what we'd done that had upset him so much. Property is definitely substantially cheaper than anywhere else round here, both to rent and to buy.

I can't say for certain, but perhaps it suffers a little from being slightly off the beaten track. The train line from Brighton to Portsmouth forks off to get there, and it's a little bit more difficult to get to anywhere else on the coast west of Brighton, from here.

[jwdd27]

The train line from Brighton to Portsmouth forks off to get there, and it's a little bit more difficult to get to anywhere else on the coast west of Brighton, from here.

"Fork off to Bognor" could be the slogan they need for a revival.

While visiting my grandparents in Rustington, our Aunt Pauline (my father's cousin) took me and my sister to Butlin's for the day. I remember it being quite wild, we watched a wrestling match and one of the wrestlers seriously hurt himself and they had to call an ambulance, as he was a baddie the crowd were mercilessly booing and heckling him for quite some time as he writhed in genuine agony.

I liked Worthing when were down there for Pauline's funeral a couple of years ago. Like Brighton with fewer wankers.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Worthing's lovely. Brighton's a bit scruffy really.

[Nefertiti2]

Once played in a chess tournament at Butlins.

And had a great aunt who lived.there.

(not at Butlins, in the town itself)

[Felicity, I guess so]

I've been going to the Butlins in Bognor for a music festival for the last four Januarys until this one just gone. The out of season holiday camp is great fun. The town centre and sea front seem pretty grim but that might just be the time of year.

I went to a punk one. I like decrepit seaside towns and went bonkers in the charity shops

[blameless]

I think Bognor is the only significant town in that part of the world that I haven't been to.

I'ver been to Portsmouth and Gosport (taking my dad to museums), Seaford (taking my mum to a museum), Fishbourne (taking both parents to a museum), Chichester (seeing a play at the Festival Theatre), Hayling Island (a weekend break with mrs b), Brighton (30th birthday party for a friend), Worthing (40th birthday party for a different friend), and Waterlooville and Goodwood (both weddings).

But never Bognor. Odd, that.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Worthing's lovely. Brighton's a bit scruffy really.

Worthing is more the retirement home type of place, for me. And Brighton more interesting.