A Second Golden Age for the British Seaside
Summer in the UK is increasingly about escaping to Brighton, Margate, Cornwall and Barry Island — rather than to Italy, Greece or Spain.
People enjoy the hot weather at Brighton beach.
Photographer: Hollie Adams/Getty Images EuropeThe years between 1880 and 1914 were the golden age for all sorts of things quintessentially British: Royal funerals and coronations, Promenade concerts, shooting weekends, Morris dancing and lazy tea parties (“stands the church clock at ten to three? / And is there honey still for tea?” wrote Rupert Brooke in 1912). High on this list must be the seaside.
Traditionally, the British seaside had been associated with spa treatments for rich valetudinarians. In the late 19th century, however, a benign combination of events brought the masses to the coasts for the first time: the extension of the railway, the introduction of paid holidays and the increase in real wages, which rose by a third in 1880-1900 alone.