Rhyl isn't Bryl

Our second stop was in the seaside town of Rhyl. A long promenade stretches along the coast with continuous development occuring.

One of our sites examined the sea view. A lot of hard engineering has been developed including multiple sea walls/structures. The lower sea wall is rather small as its a simple edge to the promenade. Whereas the larger wall that's actually on the promenade is quite imposing upon the landscape. The design of this sea wall seemed rather unconventional, it did incorporate a commercial use with viewing platforms and ramps to access them. However arches within the foundations undermined its function as a coastal defence.

As for our second site we looked to the actual town of Rhyl. A pedestrianised street housed many shops and restaurants but the theme didn't appear to be seaside-y, instead americanisation has occured with chains such as McDonalds and Subway being the prominent eaterys. The income of the area appears to be based upon tourism with b and bs featuring heavily along the coastline. As one of the poorest areas within Wales many of the houses are empty and new development is installed directly next to the old infrastructure.

Our overall view is that Rhyl is not so brill due to the fact that it appears to be stuck in a past time of success that may not be relevant anymore in our rapidly globalising world.