Through the 20th century, Yarmouth boomed as a resort, with a promenade, pubs, trams, fish-and-chip shops, theatres, the Pleasure Beach, the Sea Life Centre, the Hippodrome Circus, the Time and Tide Museum and a Victorian seaside Winter Garden in cast iron and glass.

[8] Great Yarmouth (Gernemwa, Yernemuth) lies near the site of the Roman fort camp of Gariannonum at the mouth of the River Yare.

Its situation having attracted fishermen from the Cinque Ports, a permanent settlement was made, and the town numbered 70 burgesses before the Norman Conquest.

In 1552, Edward VI granted a charter of admiralty jurisdiction, later confirmed and extended by James I. Elizabeth I came to Great Yarmouth in July 1578.

[10] In 1668 a charter from Charles II extended the borough boundaries to also include Little Yarmouth (also known as Southtown), which lay on the opposite bank of the Yare in the parish of Gorleston in Suffolk.

[12] In the early 18th century, Yarmouth, as a thriving herring port, was vividly and admiringly described several times in Daniel Defoe's travel journals, in part as follows:[13] Yarmouth is an ancient town, much older than Norwich; and at present, tho' not standing on so much ground, yet better built; much more compleat; for number of inhabitants, not much inferior; and for wealth, trade, and advantage of its situation, infinitely superior to Norwich.

Ships were routinely anchored offshore during the Napoleonic Wars and the town served as a supply base for the Royal Navy.

Part of an Ordnance Yard survives from this period on Southtown Road, probably designed by James Wyatt: a pair of roadside lodges (which originally housed senior officers) frame the entrance to the site, which contains a sizeable armoury of 1806, a small barracks block and other ancillary buildings.

Originally the depot extended down to a wharf on the River Yare and was flanked by a pair of storehouses, but these and other buildings were destroyed in The Blitz.

That same year on 15 August, Ernest Martin Jehan became the first and only man to sink a steel submarine with a sail-rigged Q-ship, off the coast of Great Yarmouth.

The town suffered from bombing raids by the German Luftwaffe during World War II, as the last significant place Germans could drop bombs before returning home, but much is left of the old town, including the original 2,000-metre (1.2 mi) protective medieval wall, of which two-thirds has survived, and eleven of the eighteen towers remain.

In February 2023, there was an explosion on River Yare when disposal of unexploded ordnance from World War II resulted in accidental detonation.

It is the third largest parish church in England, after Beverley Minster in the East Riding of Yorkshire and Christchurch Priory in Dorset.

The only remaining signs of these is a coach park, where Beach Station once was, and the A12 relief road, which follows the route of the railway down into the embankment from Breydon Bridge.

The theatre building on the latter was demolished in 2005 and reopened in 2008 as a family entertainment centre, including a ten-pin bowling alley overlooking the beach.

The waterways, running parallel to the main beach, were a feature constructed as a work-creation scheme in 1926–1928, consisting of canals and formal gardens, with rowing boats, pedalos and gondolas.

The monument, designed by William Wilkins, shows Britannia standing atop a globe holding an olive branch in her right hand and a trident in her left.

The monument was originally planned to mark Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile, but fundraising was not completed until after his death and it was instead dedicated to England's greatest naval hero.

In October 2021, street artist Banksy created a number of murals in the town as part of his set A Great British Spraycation.

The area became part of the larger Borough of Great Yarmouth, a lower-tier non-metropolitan district, with Norfolk County Council providing county-level services to the town for the first time.

The main local football club is Great Yarmouth Town, known as the Bloaters, which plays in the Eastern Counties League.

Great Yarmouth has a horse racecourse that features a chute allowing races of one mile (1.6 km) on the straight.

The English Pool Association (EPA),[36] the governing body for 8-Ball Pool in England, holds its National Finals Competitions (including Inter-County and Inter-League, singles and team competitions, and England trials) over several weekends through the year at the Vauxhall Holiday Park[37] on the outskirts of Great Yarmouth.

[42] Before the Beeching cuts, there were three other railway lines that entered the town: The remaining Vauxhall station was renamed Great Yarmouth in 1989.

The bus station in Great Yarmouth is the hub for local routes, located beneath Market Gates Shopping Centre.

[44] The River Yare cuts off Great Yarmouth from other areas of the borough such as Gorleston and Southtown; as a result, the town's bridges became major transport links.

[47] Since 2006, the restored pleasure steamer the Southern Belle has offered regular river excursions from the town's Haven Bridge.

Built in 1925 for the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, she is now owned by the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Steam Packet Company Limited.

Plans were advanced for a third river crossing in Great Yarmouth to link northern Gorleston with the South Denes and the Outer Harbour, avoiding the congested town centre.

Made up of a group of volunteers within the community in which they live or work, they are trained to attend emergency 999 calls by the NHS Ambulance Service.