The View Point Café, Harwich Harbour: the ideal base for a day’s photography

After reading this title, most readers I suspect would have two questions. Where is Harwich Harbour, and if I could visit The View Point Café, what genres of photography are on offer?

The first question is easy to answer.  Start from London and follow the coast in a north-easterly direction for eighty miles, and you will find the tidal estuary named Harwich Harbour or alternatively Harwich Haven. 

On the north side are Felixstowe Docks and on the south side is Harwich Town. The estuary then divides into the rivers Stour and Orwell.  

The answer to the second question is that probably all genres of photography are there for the snapping, although most likely not sports, portraiture, or wedding photography.  

The View Point Café

In 2013, a joint initiative by, the Port of Felixstowe, Suffolk Coastal Council and a local businessman, resulted in the opening of the “Landguard Visitors Centre and View Point Café”.  The concept was to boost tourism in the area. 

Eleven years later, the initiative has undoubtedly been a success.  As I live about ten miles away, I regularly use the busy Viewpoint Café as a base for photography. The traditional café fare is also to be recommended.  

Many a happy hour has been spent on the terrace, camera in hand and coffee on the table, watching the world go by.  

Ship spotting

The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom and handles the biggest container ships in the world today.  

During the day a procession of varied craft sail by, including ships, tugs, pilot boats, sailing boats, dredgers and fishing boats, all ready to be photographed.

Clockwise (from upper left): Felixstowe docks stretch into the distance; Felixstowe docks, Evergreen and Maersk blue; Ever Alp one of the largest moving objects on the planet

Parkeston Quay on the river Stour, just past Harwich Town, is the base for a daily Harwich to Hook of Holland ferry service.

One special visitor to Harwich Harbour not so long ago was the Waverley; the last sea-going paddle steamer in the Northern Hemisphere.  As you will see from the photograph, she is based in Glasgow, Scotland.

Landguard Fort

Maybe maritime photography isn’t quite your cup of tea. Then allow me to introduce you to Landguard Fort (managed by English Heritage). It’s only a couple of hundred yards walk from the café. I recommend a visit, camera at the ready.

Quiz question number one. When and where was the last time foreign troops attacked the English mainland? The answer which will surprise you is that it happened at this very same Landguard Fort. 

On 2 July 1667, towards the end of the second Anglo-Dutch war, some fifteen hundred Dutch marines and five hundred sailors were involved in this ultimately unsuccessful attack on English soil. Happily, those days of British-Dutch acrimony are long gone, apart from on the football pitch that is.

Next to the Fort is the volunteer-run Felixstowe Museum, housing some interesting exhibits from Felixstowe’s history.  At one time, where the docks are now, Felixstowe Air Station in 1924 became the principal test centre for marine planes.  One hundred years ago a spectator on the beach would have seen seaplanes taking off and landing in Harwich Harbour.  

Harwich

Quiz question number two. What is the connection between the town of Harwich and the annual Thanksgiving holiday in the United States of America? For the answer, we need to travel to Harwich to find out. At this stage, nonetheless, it’s probably time to have suitable sustenance from the café.  

From the beach just south of the café, a ‘foot ferry’ operates across the harbour to Harwich. The ferry also does a leg to Shotley on the north side of the river Stour.

For me, this is a nostalgic boat ride as we pass the Harwich Navyard Wharf. Prinz Ferry Line used this wharf for its services to Hamburg and Bremerhaven many years ago. During five years of service with the British Army of the Rhine, over a half a century ago, I got to know Harwich Navyard extremely well.

Left: En route to Harwich, the old 1818 lighthouse is on the left. Right: Passing Harwich Navyard Wharf towards Ha’penny Pier

Harwich at war

In 1918, over one hundred U-boat crews would have had mixed emotions about Harwich. For them, the war was over, and it was here that the U-boat fleet surrendered as a group.  The crews were transported safely back to Germany and their U-boats then either scuttled or cut up for scrap.  

The emotions felt by the U-boat crews are in sharp contrast to the feelings of bewilderment experienced by the thousands of children from the Kinder Transport Programme who arrived at Harwich in 1938 and 1939. 

Harwich is steeped in history, but is not a pretty town. Having said that, there are many places worth visiting.  I have photographed several sites and scenes, but there isn’t space to show them here. 

One structure I didn’t manage to photograph successfully is the new 2022 Kinder Transport Memorial sculpture on the quayside. The light was wrong and there were people milling around all the time. Other readers might have more success.

Mayflower

The yellow passenger ferry docks at the Ha’penny¹ Pier in Harwich, at the end of which is a visitor centre and a Mayflower exhibition.  The ship, the Mayflower, was probably built there. It’s captain, Christopher Jones, also came from Harwich, where his house still stands today.  Read the Mayflower story in this excellent article.

So the connection between the town of Harwich and the annual Thanksgiving holiday in the United States of America is that the captain of the Mayflower came from Harwich.

The pilgrims, after a bumper harvest in the autumn of 1621, decided to celebrate with a three-day festival of prayer. The fifty-three surviving settlers invited their Native American friends to join them for a massive feast in what was to become known as the first Thanksgiving.

Trinity House

Quiz question number three. Which member of the British Royal Family is entitled to use one of the six bedroom suites on this working ship called Patricia?  Answer: Her Royal Highness, Anne, the Princess Royal in her capacity as Master of Trinity House.

The ship Patricia is just not a working ship but a working ship with Royal connections. The ship’s full name is: Trinity House Vessel Patricia.  

Trinity House is a Corporation which came into being in 1514, by Royal Charter granted by Henry VIII (of six-wives fame).  The role of Trinity House now is to care for coastal navigational aids, for example as lighthouses and buoys around Great Britain.  The operational headquarters are in Harwich, though its formal plush headquarters, built in 1796, are at Tower Hill in the City of London.  

Landguard Nature Reserve

So it is time to catch the yellow ferry back to Felixstowe and, after a stopover at the View Point Café, walk three hundred yards to Landguard Nature Reserve.  It is here that we can indulge in photographing flora and fauna. 

The Nature Reserve of 33 hectares (81 acres) is a vegetative shingle spit at the junction of the North Sea and Harwich Harbour.  Rare plants, including the yellow sea poppy, are a delight to photograph.

Left: The rare yellow sea poppy. Right: Teasels galore

If you are into bird photography, then try capturing many of the migrating birds which use the reserve as a stopping-off point in their journey. The diminutive Ringed Plover also nests on the beach shingle in the spring. 

Colours, Shapes and Textures

I know many of us photographers love looking for unusual images to show off the capabilities of our cameras and lenses. Here are three examples which appealed to me. They were all taken not too far away from the View Point Café.  

Clockwise from upper left: Weathered by the waves; Anti-tank defences – not needed now; One missing

End of the Day

As the café closes and the light fades, it is time to capture some final images.  

The image of Ever Alp on route to Hamburg taken in January late in the afternoon is most satisfying to me as it creates a mood and tells a story.  Isn’t this the essence of photography?

Photographic notes

I suspect many readers will have looked at my photographs and thought, intuitively, that there was more than one camera used.  You would be right.  So what brought you to this conclusion? Maybe there are differences in image quality, colour rendition or depth of field? 

I took pictures with three Sony cameras: RX100 Mk1, RX100Mk6, and an A7C with a 40mm F2.5 G lens. My RX100 cameras have served me well for over twelve years, and our Editor gave a fulsome review of the RX100 Mk6 in 2018.  

My photography is generally around landscapes and things rather than specifically street photography, portraits, or wildlife.  The RX100 Mk6, despite its age, is still to me a compelling proposition because it is so small and light.  Its images are good enough for my own personal use and style of photography.

For landscape photography, as I am old-school, the foreground to the horizon needs to be pin-sharp.  The one-inch sensor of the RX100s with their shorter focal length lens does help in producing a decent depth of field.

Full-frame and prime

The full frame sensor of the A7C with a decent prime lens, I admit, does produce superior quality images. It also delivers a creamy bokeh for creative photography. I am starting to explore this potential. As for buying a full frame zoom lens, my preference for lightness and compactness trumps any buying urges.

The photographs in the article have received minimal post-processing: just a small bit of cropping and straightening of horizons.  

The photograph of Harwich Navy Yard wasn’t taken by a drone but from the deck of the Harwich to Hook of Holland ferry.

Cameras are just a tool to produce high-quality images. Many say the experience of using a particular camera is also part of the joy of photography. None of us though would doubt that photography is a most absorbing and rewarding hobby.

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1. Ha’penny is a contraction of half-penny, a coin that is no long minted ↩︎