The British seaside holiday has its origins in the early 1700’s. However it was with the increasing affluence, brought about by the Industrial revolution and improved rail links of Victorian Britain, that the seaside holiday became popular. Many early visitors were seeking, what at the time was thought to be, the healing properties of the sea or near-by spa waters. The Great Yarmouth Bath House was opened in 1759 where guests took seawater baths believing that the seawater had medicinal properties.
The advent of the railways.
The railways helped to give cheaper and faster access to the seaside for the middle classes from the 1840s onwards. Even the working classes found it possible to take day trips to the growing towns like Blackpool and Brighton. The railway companies were arguably the first tour operators. Many railway companies owned hotels at the resorts and could provide travel and accommodation to late 19th century holidaymakers. By the early 20th century there were over 100 resort towns around the British coastline mainly fed by the railways whose steam trains were a common sight. Rail tickets in 1:12th scale can be found on our web shop.
Accommodation
Throughout the 19th century accommodation was usually offered by way of a guest house (with austere landlady!) or for the more affluent by hotels. By the end of the century a new type of accommodation began to appear: the holiday camp. The first holiday camp on a permanent site was opened in 1894 near Douglas, Isle of Man, by Joseph Cunningham. The holiday camp provided all that was needed for a holiday on one site. Accommodation, entertainment, food and swimming facilities were all to hand. Holiday camps reached a peak of popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, but cheap foreign travel and a change in tastes have led to a decline with only a few major sites still open.
The Lido
Often the centre of the holiday was the Lido or outdoor swimming pool. By the 1930’s swimming in its own right had become popular and the Lido a natural attraction for swimmers. This was taken to a formal level with the advent of the beauty competitions that were also centred on the lido. The beauty contests began after the Second World War and were an antidote to the austerity of the post war years. Beauty contest always had their swimwear section to be modelled by the pool. (A variety of knitting patterns for early swimwear in 1:12th scale can be found here. The Lido was not solely the property of the holiday camp. In the 1920’s and 30’s many towns and cities opened their own Lidos including Blackpool, Plymouth, Skegness, Brighton and Morecambe.
The beach
For many the main attraction of the seaside was the beach. For children it was, and still is, a perfect playground. Fishing with nets in rock pools, making sand castles and paddling in the seas shore are still an attraction for children. For parents it’s a deck chair, writing postcards home, taking souvenir photos, and scanning the horizon with binoculars for fishing boats or container ships going to somewhere exotic, or beachcombing for shells and glass fishing floats. Lobster pots and fishermen in ganseys add character to small seaside fishing ports. (Many of the items mentioned above can be found on our web shop in both 1:12th and 1:24th scale)
No trip to the beach is complete of course without a picnic and an ice cream.
The British Summer
The British are renown for their intense interest in the weather! The location of the British Isles and the effects of the Gulf Stream make for changeable weather all year round. No wonder then that most seaside accommodation provides for wet days in the way of board games (a selection of these can be found on our web shop, playing cards, videos/DVD’s and toys. Despite all this the British seaside holiday remains popular and has not completely lost out to the holidays on offer from southern European destinations.