Among the pastel-hued cottages, pubs, cafes and restaurants and stone buildings that curve around the quay is a chandlers selling sailmakers’ needles, anchors and everything in between, the Royal Dorset Yacht Club, a dive centre (120 sites within a 20-mile radius, I’m told) and the all-important Harbour Master building. Inside, a compelling, if eye-wateringly complex nautical map of the central English Channel covered half a wall.
“People like to round the [Portland] Bill, which is quite a technical sail, and we get day-trippers from Yarmouth [Isle of Wight], Poole and Guernsey. And then there are the French rallies,” said berthing master Richard Drabwell.
I’d downloaded QR codes for street mural, art and heritage trails. I picked up the Beach and Harbour history trail, waymarked by pavement plaques, and followed it over the swing bridge that straddles the Wey, finishing at the Tudor House Museum. From there I turned into Hope Square, where a handsome Grade-II listed Victorian brewery is being converted into Weymouth’s new museum.
“We’re proud of our town,” read the scaffolding banners. “Your new museum will celebrate all that’s best about Weymouth.”