A coastal resort with a long history visited by tens of thousands of people a year has been savaged in a poll of the public.
Skegness has been judged to be the worst seaside town in the country in a poll of more than 3,000 people.
When a railway line offered sun and sea seekers a quick route to the Lincolnshire town in 1873, Skegness's popularity boomed.
Day trippers from the East Midlands factory town flocked to the resort for days out filled with fish and chips, fairground amusements and splashing in the waves.
Its star shone most brightly during the wars when the arrival of the first Butlin's holiday resort made it the go-to affordable beach destination in the UK.
As much as the arrival of cheap holidays overseas has turned attention away from Skegness to Spain, Greece and Portugal, many still head there every year for some British seaside charm.
It seems that the town isn't able to impress those crowds as it once did, scoring an destination score of 48% in a new Which? survey.
The seafront was awarded a single star out of five by those surveyed, as did the scenery and the shopping options.
It is not difficult to find previous visitors to the town who are keen to stick the knife into its reputation.
In a scathing review one person wrote: "The beach was horrible and we had to go 20 miles up the road to Mablethorpe to enjoy a decent beach. Overall terrible place with terrible people. I will never go there ever again."
Another reviewer, equally as opposed to pulling any punches, said: "Horribly smelly. The sea has a brown froth on the top. The streets are dirty. The roads are potholed."
Meanwhile one seemingly dramatic tourist urged others to "run away" from the resort.
Many people have a soft spot for Skegness however, including Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel.
He went out to bat for the seaside towns that found themselves at the bottom of the latest list, which all seem to share a common sense of faded glory.
"Where was my last UK seaside break? Southend on Sea", Roland said.
"This small city on the Essex coast finished an unhappy fourth from bottom in our survey. Now I’m not going to try and convince you it deserves to be up the other end of the table.
"Is it as nice as Bamburgh, or Dartmouth? No. But for that holiday where you want to have some fun and not spend a lot of money, it’s fantastic.
"In Southend me and my kids won (and lost) a fortune on the penny slot machines, took a spin on the carousel aboard a pair of pink elephants and ate £9 fish and chips with our toes in the miles of sandy beach.
"It was not a warts free holiday. Rubbish blew around our feet while we walked along the promenade and many buildings looked run down, a reflection of the struggles Southend and many other traditional seaside resorts have in raising enough revenue to regenerate their town centres.
"Not for the first time we also had to cross the road away from boozed up and shouty day drinkers. This is a perpetual problem in some seaside resort towns.
"Clacton, Skegness and Southend all received one star from visitors for the lack of peace and quiet, and some visitors complain that the boisterous atmosphere can tip into feeling unsafe.
"That’s a shame, because what Clacton, Skegness and Southend offer is exactly the sort of seaside break many of us want.
"Big beaches, big entertainment and small prices. More should be done to help them level up and become first class holiday resorts."
