Page 71 - All About History 55 - 2017 UK

Sun, Sea and Social Breakdown

A photograph of Margate, Kent, taken
circa 1900. The Victorian era saw it
become home to an amusement park
that later evolved into Dreamland,
which still stands today

Women’s swimsuits were
designed to protect modesty

rom sandcastles to fish and chips,
promenades to pleasure piers, many
of the things best associated with a
trip to the British seaside have their
Froots in the Victorian summer holiday.
However, while we take these seaside attractions
for granted now — even looking back on them as
old fashioned — many of them were considered
revolutionary at the time, some even an affront
to common decency. This led to some puritanical
restrictions, but not even Victorian morality could
hold back the tide of change that was rolling in.
“Coastal towns
Peacocking on the prom
Trips to the seaside were nothing new at the
beginning of the Victorian era, at least for the offered a welcome
upper classes. In fact, ‘taking the waters’ for your
health was so popular during the Georgian period break from the
that Jane Austen featured both the spa town of
Bath in two of her novels and the coastal town of choking pollution”
Lyme Regis in Persuasion. As Austen was keen to
point out, while these trips were ostensibly about
getting fresh air and exercise, they were also often preventative of disease and a great aid for the All aboard the
an excuse for high society to mingle and show treatment of ailments of all character.” bathing machines
off. As well as prove that they could afford not to Prince Albert, a staunch advocate of science and Up until the 1850s, it was not
work, they couldalso stay at grand hotels, attend healthy living, led by example by building a new unusual for men to bathe or even
the theatre, and wear the latest fashions at parties. royal residence by the sea in 1845: Osborne House swim in the sea completely naked. But
A classic example of this exhibitionism on the Isle of Wight. The royal family spent many such a tradition would not fit with the
masquerading as healthy living was promenading. summers from July to August at their palatial ever-expanding popularity of the seaside
A stroll along the seafront was considered good holiday home, with Queen Victoria continuing to holiday. Not only were there more people
for the constitution, but a long, level ‘prom’ or stay there regularly long after Albert died in 1861. sharing the beach, many of them were
esplanade was also like a public catwalk where We now know that the Victorians were quite now women and children. Victorian values
you could be ‘seen’ by society and enjoy admiring wrong about the seaside offering so-called and correctness dictated that the proper
glances as you strolled serenely by, decked out activated oxygen. But in an era of rapidly etiquette was followed.
in your best attire. Promenading only grew in industrialising towns and cities, it’s likely that For example, as popular as promenading
popularity during the Victorian era, with the first these coastal towns offered a welcome break from was, an unmarried woman was chaperoned by a
piers being built in the 1850s to give tourists the choking pollution. married lady — a family member or friend — when
somewhere to stroll as well as to moor ships. But the smog-ridden Industrial Revolution also strolling to ensure that the strict social boundaries
While spa towns like Bath and Harrogate still brought railways. This new mode of transport between the sexes were not crossed and to ward
held their appeal during Queen Victoria’s reign, could whisk you across country in a matter of off any unwanted or unsavoury advances. On the
doctors were increasingly recommending trips hours, shrinking time itself and opening up a beach, this became something of a nightmare for
to seaside resorts. This was mainly because they whole new world of endless opportunities of how Victorian decency, especially when it came to the
to seaside resorts. This was mainly because they
believed that the bracing sea air contained people could spend their precious leisure time. tricky subject of bathing in the sea.
believed that the bracing sea air contained
what they termed as ‘ozone’ or ‘activated Although expensive, the burgeoning Victorian Promoted as a healthy pastime, sea bathing
what they termed as ‘ozone’ or ‘activated
oxygen’, something that was middle class could afford rail fares and were keen was as popular with Victorian women as men, if
oxygen’, something that was
“very essential but also a to follow en masse where the aristocrats led. not more so as it represented another small yet
“very essential but also a
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