How have changes at the British seaside reflected changes in British society?
When I think of the seaside, I think of tranquillity, being beside the sea as calming for the soul, even in the roughest of weather, as it is a place where the elements are constantly changing. The seaside is a place of transitions. Peter Baldwin sums this up well: “The shore marks the border between the solid land and the fluid sea. The seaside is therefore a liminal space - a threshold - where people may move from one element to another” (Baldwin, 2008, p.215) In many ways the seaside has developed steadily, sometimes frantically, following changing societal conditions, and not always as a place of tranquillity. The tendency is to think of the seaside resort as a Victorian phenomenon, but it goes back to Georgian times when it was more a domain of the wealthy/privileged classes. The aristocracy went there for extended periods for the ‘cures’ on offer from the various spas etc., along with the ‘curative’ sea bathing, and all of the ‘rules’ that this entailed. Of course, these resorts...