Museums

This location is a living slice of British history, featuring one of the last chippies in the world still cooking in beef dripping over coal-fired 1950s fryers

If you are sick of endless notifications and modern life, this sprawling northern village offers the ultimate escape – complete with a legendary, coal-fired chippy.

A quaint northern location has been heavily praised online for its “insane” chip shop and its unique ability to take visitors on a genuine journey back in time.

Beamish, a sprawling, 350-acre open-air museum nestled in the County Durham countryside. Designed to offer an authentic window into northern England’s past, the “living” museum is packed with period-accurate shops, traditional eateries, Georgian gardens, and vintage transport, drawing hundreds of thousands of eager tourists every single year.

According to the official Beamish website, the world-famous attraction brings history to life across several dedicated exhibits, including an 1820s Pockerley setup, a 1900s Town and Pit Village, and 1950s farm areas.

To keep the historical illusion absolutely bulletproof, you will never catch any of the in-character actors sneaking a glance at a smartphone, either.

Combined with the notoriously patchy mobile signal across the sprawling site, visitors agree this enforced digital detox is actually a massive bonus, allowing them to completely unplug and fully immerse themselves in the Edwardian experience.

Using a clever combination of authentic reconstructions and meticulously relocated historical structures, visitors can fully immerse themselves in the past – right down to the food.

There’s a vintage sweet shop that attracts long lines, as well as a legendary chip shop that guests can’t get enough of.

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Inside Davy’s Fried Fish Shop

Food content creator Robbie Thompson made the trip to the preserved settlement to try the local grub. During his visit, he stopped by the celebrated Davy’s Fried Fish Shop, which is widely recognised for its fiercely traditional cooking techniques.

Nestled in the attraction’s 1900s Pit Village, the beloved chippy operates exactly as a traditional Edwardian takeaway would. There are no modern fryers or cheap vegetable oils in sight.

Instead, staff in period dress serve up piping-hot, golden-battered fish and chunky chips cooked the old-fashioned way – bubbling away in rich beef dripping over authentic, coal-fired ranges.

The intensely flavoursome, crispy results routinely draw massive queues of hungry tourists, and Robbie was quick to sing its praises.

In a video tour of the chippy and the surrounding town, the TikToker told his followers: “This is the fish and chip shop trapped in time – one of the last in the world that uses coal to heat the original 1950s fryers, with fish and chips cooked in beef dripping.”

Praising the wider village, he continued: “The sweet shop makes candy by hand, the bakery makes the same cakes as a century ago. There’s no mobile phone reception up here, so people actually have to talk to each other. A slice of England unchanged. It’s one of the most incredible fish and chips, it’s Davy’s in Beamish.”

Captioning the viral clip, he added: “Insane chippy stuck in history. Absolute scenes.”

“The best you will ever eat”

TikTok users were swift to flood the comments with their own rave reviews of the living museum and its famous food.

One gushed: “Beamish museum – if you’ve not yet been then go, it’s brilliant, them chips and fish best ever.”

Another agreed: crowning the meal the “best fish and chips [they] have ever had.”

A third nostalgic viewer reminisced: “We went on a school trip to Beamish when I was about 10. Loved it! I’m 57 now.”

Others were heavily drawn to the village’s lack of signal. One said: “Wonder if no mobile reception is a specific tactic. What a world with no mobiles and social media.”

The overall vibe of the historic settlement left many viewers wanting to pack their bags for good, with one begging: “Make the WHOLE of the UK like this.”

Another joked: “Not me Googling if people live here, in an attempt to escape modern society.”

PARIS — Some 70,000 law enforcement officers will be deployed across France on Saturday while the Louvre and several other major Paris museums will be closed as authorities seek to prevent renewed violence during planned protests.

Protests last week devolved into mayhem, with people setting fires, storming public buildings, smashing shop windows, looting and clashing with police. It was France’s most violent unrest in years.

Demonstrators plan to take to the streets again Saturday to denounce the high cost of living. Students, members of the CGT labor union and activists from the “yellow vest” movement, whose demonstrations against social injustice shook France in 2018 and 2019, are all set to join.

While some protests have been banned for security reasons in several cities, including Lyon, Nice and Montpellier, marches are expected in many other places including in Paris and Marseille.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said some 70,000 police officers and gendarmes would be deployed, along with helicopters, armored vehicles and water cannons. In addition, elite police units will help secure public buildings like city halls in a “highly mobile” security operation, he said.

“There have been numerous calls from radical far-left groups on social media to commit acts of violence and vandalism. There have also been renewed calls for looting, with those messages clearly being spread by rioters,” Nuñez said at a news conference.

“We will be absolutely uncompromising” with those involved in violence, he added, warning that police will have a “very firm approach to making arrests, and there will be legal consequences.”

Paris museums to be closed

In a statement to the Associated Press, the Culture Ministry said the Louvre, the Orsay and Picasso museums as well as the Grand Palais would be closed. The ministry called on all institutions under its authority to adopt any necessary measures to ensure “visitor safety, staff protection and the preservation of artworks,” according to the statement.

After two days when admission was by invitation only, Art Basel Paris opened to the public Friday — but only for the day, with the threat of unrest prompting organizers to cancel the weekend program. One of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art fairs, Art Basel includes exhibitions by 211 international galleries at Paris’ Grand Palais.

“This decision has not been taken lightly, and the safety of everyone involved in the fair remains our utmost priority,” organizers said in a statement Thursday.

Saloni Doshi, an art collector who traveled to Paris from India for the fair, grew worried Saturday as she saw the fires and panicked people, and she received phone calls from friends asking whether Paris was safe. She agreed with the organizers’ rationale to close.

Antoine Donzeaud and Elisa Rigoulet, the owners of the gallery exo exo, felt the same.

“We understand this decision, which we consider reasonable and consistent with the urgency of the social demands currently unfolding in France,” they said in a text message.

But some visitors were disappointed.

“It’s very sad, because we just came here to the fair, and we could not get in because they canceled it for the weekend,” said Fabián Hernández, 32, from Mexico City. “So it’s very busy today, and it’s disappointing to me because I love the art fair, you know? But it is what it is.”

An anti far-right protest is planned

A demonstration Saturday in the city of Orléans, about 70 miles south of Paris, will also be closely watched.

About 50 organizations have called for a protest against the far right on the sidelines of the two-day congress of Marine Le Pen’s nationalist, anti-immigration party ahead of next spring’s presidential election. Organizers include labor unions, left-wing political parties, student organizations and anti-racism groups.

Hugues Moutouh, the prefect of the Loiret region, said that 20,000 to 30,000 demonstrators from across the country were expected.

Le Pen, whom opinion polls place as the front-runner in next year’s election, accused left-wing organizations and political parties of trying to “disrupt a political party’s democratic congress” on news broadcaster Franceinfo.

Still, she said she had “no concerns” about security because the government had “recognized the need for measures allowing the congress to proceed safely.”

Gadeva and Corbet write for the Associated Press. AP writers David Biller and Samuel Petrequin in Paris contributed to this report.