Return to Rhyl

I’ve always loved Rhyl, as it was always the last stop on days out to North Wales. Three rides on the fairground, so choose wisely, and then fish and chips before heading home to Liverpool. Things have changed and now as I live in North Wales and just before Christmas, after a few days working in Liverpool, I took the train back to Conwy. Only the train didn't go further than Rhyl so I stopped off for a bit. It was like the first treat of Christmas. In 2004, I’d worked on an edition of Plastic Rhino magazine called Keepin’ it Rhyl which was a sort of guided walking tour of Rhyl. I’m not sure we did the town any favours but we did it with affection and you can see some of the photographs in the Plastic Rhino section of the archive. But I’ve always meant to go back and do something different there. Something a bit more positive as, even though it’s still struggling, there’s also been some nice developments happening in the town and I’d like to see what else is going on. On this pre Christmas walkabout, I took a wander around the virtually deserted Queens Market, to see if the line dancing shop was still there. But it wasn’t. In fact there were only a few shops left as the market was finally closing down for regeneration. Luckily one of the last men standing had a fantastic record shop and Christmas came early in the shape of a reggae comp and Graham Nash’s ‘Songs For Beginners’ on vinyl. Rhyl always has surprises at the end of the day.