UK's most divisive seaside town as Brits can't decide if it's beautiful or bleak

A 'unique' coastal spot that is variously loved and loathed has been named one of the best seaside towns in the country.

Dungeness in Kent has been named the seventh-best beachtown in the UK in Which?’s annual survey of the British public. The consumer organisation surveyed more than 3,800 people about their experiences of UK seaside destinations and their opinions on beaches, scenery, food and drink offerings, accommodation, tourist attractions, and value for money.

The elevation of Dungeness into the top ten is a major scoop for the Kentish settlement, which languished in 35th place last year.

Not everyone is a major fan of Dungeness. It is a curious place long haunted by rumours that it is technically the UK's only desert—something that the Met Office has previously confirmed is pure myth. You'd be forgiven for believing the lie, given the way random shacks, homes and cafs stretch out across the shingled headland.

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It is a place that feels like it should be the setting for an American Western dystopian flick, rather than somewhere that sits on the south coast of England. Bikers whizz along the roads that wind through its flat, marshland extremities; a constant breeze ruffles the pampas grass; wildfowl bleat mournfully. To add to the end-of-days feel of the place, boats filled with asylum seekers regularly make land here.

Inarguably, the bleak jewel in the Dungeness crown is its twin nuclear power plants, which once whipped a patch of nearby sea into a whirlpool but have lain dormant and decommissioned for the past 19 years.

The unique feel of the place has been best captured by artist, filmmaker, gay rights activist, and gardener Derek Jarman, who turned his home into Prospect Cottage—a point of pilgrimage for his fans and those who love the way he carefully manicured the garden into a concentrated miniature form of Dungeness.

But not everyone is a fan. In fact, many are left cold by Dungeness’ charms.

"Bleak is an understatement," one detractor of the place recently wrote on Reddit. Another added: "Bleak to Dungeness is like ‘a wee bit cold’ in Antarctica. The missus loved it though…" A third wrote: "I find it dismal down there. Old nuclear power station for a view."

Others love Dungeness and how different it feels from other parts of the UK.

The science writer Ben Goldacre recalled his experience of riding through Dungeness on the small railway that takes day-trippers down the coastline.

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"The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway has a strange, dreamlike existence, on the border between fantasy and reality. You leave toytown in a cute miniature train, surrounded by excited children. But Disney, this is not. Suddenly you’re riding through real life: past clothes lines, collapsing breezeblock walls, an abandoned washing machine in a back garden, chuffing along behind a miniature steam train. Finally, you’re ferried across a beautiful, windswept shingle peninsula, spotted with railway carriage houses and abandoned shipping containers. Then you are delivered to the foot of a nuclear power station," Ben wrote.

"This meeting of toy train sets and grim industrial purpose is what makes the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway so perfect."

What do you think about Dungeness? Let us know in the comments below.

Top 20

Bamburgh: 84%

Beer: 80%

Portmeirion: 79%

Saint David's: 79%

Sidmouth: 79%

Tynemouth: 79%

Dungeness: 78%

Tenby: 78%

Aldeburgh: 77%

Wells-Next-The-Sea: 77%

Whitby: 77%

Lynmouth: 76%

Nairn: 76%

Saint Andrews: 76%

St Mawes: 76%

Swanage: 76%

Broadstairs: 75%

Bude: 75%

Lyme Regis: 75%

Robin Hood's Bay: 75%

Bottom 20

Ilfracombe: 55%

Littlehampton: 54%

Mablethorpe: 54%

Ramsgate: 54%

Skegness: 54%

Fishguard: 53%

Barton on sea: 52%

Cleethorpes: 52%

Lowestoft: 52%

New Brighton: 52%

Ayr: 51%

Great Yarmouth: 50%

Weston-super-Mare: 49%

Blackpool: 48%

Burnham-on-Sea: 46%

Fleetwood: 46%

Southend-on-Sea: 43%

Clacton-on-Sea: 42%

Bangor: 38%

Bognor Regis: 36%