The Aldeburgh Beach Lookout is a historic landmark on the

Aldeburgh Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the English county, county of Suffolk, England, north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the comp ...

sea front, in

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, England.

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

listed, it was built around 1830 as a lookout tower to assist or plunder shipping along the hazardous

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

coast. It now houses an artistic space, hosting exhibitions by British artists including Sir

Antony Gormley Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the ''Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; ''Another Pl ...

RA.

History

In the 19th century, observation towers were constructed along the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's coastline to help ships navigate treacherous waters and sail safely on. Lookouts, as they were called, were typically commercial operations in the business of rescuing or salvaging vessels. The Aldeburgh Beach Lookout is the southern of two lookouts on Aldeburgh beach; its rival, the North Lookout, stands approximately 100 yards north and now forms part of the

Aldeburgh Lifeboat Station Aldeburgh Lifeboat Station is located on Crag Path in Aldeburgh, a town on the East coast of Suffolk. A lifeboat station was first established at Aldeburgh by the Royal National Institute for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (RNIPLS) in ...

. The South Lookout, now known as the Aldeburgh Beach Lookout, became a coastguard post before falling into disuse in the mid-20th century. South African writer and Aldeburgh resident Sir

Laurens van der Post Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, (13 December 1906 – 15 December 1996) was a South African Afrikaner writer, farmer, soldier, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer and conservationist. He was noted for his interest in Jungi ...

wrote inside the lookout for over 30 years, from the mid-1950s onwards.

Current use

In 2010, the Aldeburgh Beach Lookout was co-founded by Francis Carnwath and Caroline Wiseman to provide an artistic space for the public to view modern art. Since then, the Lookout has hosted exhibitions by many international artists including

Royal Academicians Lists of artists, Royal Academicians Lists of members of learned societies, Royal Academicians Royal Academicians, ...

Alison Wilding Alison Mary Wilding Order of the British Empire, OBE, Royal Academy, RA (born 7 July 1948) is an English artist noted for her multimedia abstract sculptures. Wilding's work has been displayed in galleries internationally. Life Wilding was born ...

, Nigel Hall, Chris Orr, and

Eileen Cooper Eileen Cooper (born 10 June 1953) is a British artist, known primarily as a painter and printmaker. Early life Cooper was born in Glossop, Derbyshire and attended Ashton-under-Lyne College of Further Education. She went on to study at Goldsm ...

. Poets who have written in the Lookout include

Blake Morrison Philip Blake Morrison (born 8 October 1950) is an English poet and author who has published in a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. His greatest success came with the publication of his memoirs ''And When Did You Last See Your Father?' ...

and

Ian McMillan Ian McMillan may refer to: * Ian MacMillan (author) (1941–2008), Hawaiian scholar and novelist * Ian McMillan (curler) (born 1991), Canadian curler * Ian McMillan (footballer) (1931–2024), Scottish footballer *Ian McMillan (poet) Ian McMill ...

. The Lookout has hosted philosophers and thinkers including

A. C. Grayling Anthony Clifford Grayling (; born 3 April 1949) is a British philosopher and author. He was born in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and spent most of his childhood there and in Nyasaland (now Malawi). Until June 2011, he was Professor of Philos ...

and

Andrew Marr Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and presenter. Beginning his career as a political commentator at ''The Scotsman,'' he subsequently edited ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to ...

References

External links

* {{Aldeburgh Aldeburgh Buildings and structures in Suffolk Tourist attractions in Suffolk Grade II listed buildings in Suffolk Suffolk Coastal Contemporary art galleries in England