Architecture-on-Sea
Country Life UK|July 07, 2021
What is it that makes the buildings of the seaside so distinct? Kathryn Ferry looks at the vibrant architecture of our coastal towns and the way our perception of it has been shaped by early-20th-century appreciation
Kathryn Ferry
Architecture-on-Sea

YOU can do things at the seaside that you can’t do in town.’ It was a standing joke with musical-hall performers and comic-postcard illustrators, but it was a sentiment that was not true only of behaviour; architecture by the sea has always exhibited a frivolity and playfulness, too.

Seaside towns have a different focus to that inland. Instead of a centre, they have a front. The border between land and sea is defined by all sorts of manmade structures and even the most resolutely practical of them all, the defensive sea wall, is ornamented for the delight of visitors. Rebranded as the promenade, it may boast decorative railings, ornamental benches, welcome shelters and colourful beach huts. In the summer months, musicians still take their places in the bandstand and there is the pleasure pier, too, categorically not something you find away from the coast. All of these things contribute to a distinctive sense of place that has been evolving since we Brits first discovered the joys of a trip to the beach in the 18th century.

Coastal resorts developed in different ways and at different speeds. Many grew out of existing settlements, whether small villages or substantial ports. The fashion for medicinal sea bathing, which took off from the 1750s, gave them a new economic stimulus; contemporaries claimed that it had saved both Margate and Brighton in the South-East from terminal decline. Other resorts were entirely new creations of the railway age, notably Clacton-on-Sea in Essex and Saltburn by-the-Sea in Yorkshire (Fig 2). The unifying concern of them all was to provide pleasurable diversions for a visiting clientele.

Esta historia es de la edición July 07, 2021 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición July 07, 2021 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE COUNTRY LIFE UKVer todo
Save our family farms
Country Life UK

Save our family farms

IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
A very good dog
Country Life UK

A very good dog

THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
The great astral sneeze
Country Life UK

The great astral sneeze

Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
'What a good boy am I'
Country Life UK

'What a good boy am I'

We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Forever a chorister
Country Life UK

Forever a chorister

The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Best of British
Country Life UK

Best of British

In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Old habits die hard
Country Life UK

Old habits die hard

Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
It takes the biscuit
Country Life UK

It takes the biscuit

Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
It's always darkest before the dawn
Country Life UK

It's always darkest before the dawn

After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
Country Life UK

Tarrying in the mulberry shade

On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024