Deborah Jeffries, Pennant 820

In the early 1990s I watched in dismay as numerous beautiful buildings in East London were demolished or repurposed into unrecognisable structures, such as convenience stores. Fast forward to the 2000s, when I began to bring my son Karim (now aged 26) to Great Yarmouth because it was - and still is - a fantastically old- fashioned seaside town. As someone who grew up near Southend and holidayed at Butlins Clacton and Bognor Regis, I absolutely relished the nostalgia generated by the seaside entertainment on offer - from the Chuckle Brothers on the Britannia pier, to the spectacular water circus at the Hippodrome.  Now in my 60s, I am actively looking to relocate to Great Yarmouth, as the historic entertainments' buildings of my son's childhood have become an obsession. My dream is to refocus my research and published works - which have previously revolved around London's Georgian and Victorian entertainments' industry - on the same in Great Yarmouth. And what a pleasure this will be. Take a walk along Great Yarmouth's seafront and you will encounter a cinema (built as an aquarium), two piers, two cine-variety theatres, the Winter Gardens and my favourite building on the planet - the Hippodrome Circus - the UK's only entire purpose-built circus building. Add all of these to an ornate arcade, which originally housed shops and now encompasses amusement arcades (demonstrating the etymology of the word arcade), a lifeboat station, historic hotels (including one frequented by Charles Dickens) and a domed tearoom - not forgetting public toilets embellished with decorative terracotta - and you will have experienced a promenade of historic entertainments' buildings that would rival - I would claim, even surpass, the likes of Blackpool - when it comes to the architecture of leisure and the business of pleasure.