Feedback on King’s Lynn visit (Tuesday 23rd September, 2014)

First Impressions

Despite road signs warning of road closures within the town, the outskirts contained areas of well maintained ‘green space’. It was a clear, bright day (which always helps) and the South Quay looked clean and tidy as we stepped off the minibus.

Litter

There was a folding clothes-airer propped against a litter bin and a couple of black plastic rubbish sacks outside the gate of a riverside house/flat (which I took to mean it was bin day) but otherwise there was no litter to be seen.
I showed my photos of the visit to my parents at the weekend and, by the time I had got to the tenth picture my Father commented on the general lack of litter. It was not until the photos started to include images of the streets where the market was being held that ONE single piece of paper could be seen lying on the ground.
At one point I looked into a raised bed, containing shrubs, but could not find even cigarette butts discarded ‘out of sight’.
Later I found a seating area, under a large tree and surrounded by a low brick wall, where a chicken nugget and paper ‘dip’ pot had been discarded on the ground. But these represent the only pieces of litter that I remember seeing during the whole trip.

Seating and Bins

The town is full of public benches – many arranged in a circle around trees – which are well used. There always seemed to be a litter bin situated beside these benches and people appeared to make full use of them.

Tourist Routes

There are several ‘walking tour’ routes throughout the town, such as the ‘Hansa Tour’, the ‘Tourist Tour’ and the ‘Maritime Walk’. These routes are marked on maps that are available from the Tourist Information Centre, located in the Old Customs House, which is situated at the end of Purfleet Quay which forms part of King’s Lynn’s original medieval dock.
The ‘Maritime Walk’ is physically marked by numbered, diamond shaped, metal plates (roughly 75mm/3-inches to a side) which include arrows to indicated changes of direction.

Signage

Almost every building of historic interest has some sort of plaque attached, telling visitors about the building and which person/group is responsible for its restoration.
In an updated version of these disparate plaques, many buildings (mostly on King’s Street, but also around the town) have small green, circular, plaques (roughly 15cm/6-inches across) that have obviously been installed as part of a fairly recent scheme, to give a ‘corporate design’ feel to the process, which is reminiscent of the national ‘blue plaque’ scheme for listing where famous people once lived.

The People

Many of the locals seemed very proud of their town and several volunteered information and positive opinions, not only when asked but if you only appeared to be interested in a particular building.

Meeting with Council Representatives

The representatives of the council were very passionate about their town’s involvement in the New Hansa League and seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the prospect of Boston also becoming a member.
They explained that Germans like to take four day ‘themed’ breaks and highlighted the potential (assuming Boston becomes a member) for developing such a ‘Hansa Break’, that could start with Cambridge, then take in King’s Lynn and Boston, before ending in Hull.
Many mutually beneficial results of Boston joining the New Hansa League were discussed, resulting in Cllr Daubney stating that he would dearly like to propose Boston for membership at the November meeting of Die Hanse.

Conclusion

I found this to be a very enjoyable and useful visit.