A beach hut (also known as a beach cabin or bathing box) is a small, usually wooden and often brightly coloured, box above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches. They are generally used for changing into and out of swimming costumes and for the safe storing of some personal belongings. Some beach huts incorporate simple facilities for preparing food and hot drinks or have electricity.[1]

Contents

Locations

Beach huts in front of modern housing development, Wimereux, France

At many seaside resorts, beach huts are arranged in one or more ranks along the top of the beach. Depending upon the location, beach huts may be owned privately or may be owned by the local council or similar administrative body. On popular beaches, privately owned beach huts can command substantial prices due to their convenient location, out of all proportion to their size and amenity.

Today there are believed to be around 20,000 beach huts in the U.K. Locations where beach huts can be seen include Lowestoft, Southwold, Walton-on-the-Naze, Abersoch, Langland Bay, Rotherslade, Rustington, St Helens, Isle of Wight, and Mersea Island. Locations in other countries include Wimereux, France, and Brighton and elsewhere around Port Phillip, Australia.

The colourful bathing boxes in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton are a tourist icon of the city. Middle Brighton pier and the city skyline are visible in the background

History

Beach huts at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

The noted bathing boxes at Brighton in Australia are known to have existed as far back as 1862.[2] The bathing boxes are thought to have been constructed and used largely as a response to the Victorian morality of the age, and are known to have existed not only in Australia but also on the beaches of England, France and Italy at around the same time.[3]

They had evolved from the wheeled bathing machines used by Victorians to preserve their modesty. George III used a bathing machine at Mudeford in 1801, while Queen Victoria installed one at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight in the 1840s.

In the early 20th century, beach huts were regarded as "holiday homes for the toiling classes", but in the 1930s their image revived, George V and Queen Mary spent the day at a beach hut in Sussex, and other owners have included the Spencer family and Sir Laurence Olivier. [4]

While many beach huts are former fishermen's huts or boatsheds, some of the earliest purpose built beach huts in the UK were erected at Bournemouth, either side of Bournemouth Pier in around 1908 or 1909. Designed by F. P. Dolamore, Bournemouth's Borough Engineer, they were offered for hire for £12 10s per year. 160 huts, or bungalows as they were styled, were initially built before the first world war. The Council believes that some of the original 1909 huts are still standing, although the majority were renewed in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, Bournemouth features around 520 huts owned by the Council, There are in addition a further 1200 privately owned huts. They vary in style from the traditional, wooden, shed-like constructions to the ultra modern, concrete terrace style huts. The 1950s designed concrete Overstrand beach huts at Boscombe have recently been revamped by Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway, founders of the Red or Dead label, as Beach Pods for the Surf Reef opened in Autumn 2009.

Notable huts

The Queen's beach hut in Norfolk was destroyed by fire in 2003. The building had been owned by the Royal Family for 70 years and was known to be much loved by the Queen. More recently Tracey Emin the Contemporary Artist sold her Whitstable beach hut to the collector Charles Saatchi for £75,000.[5]

See also

Image gallery

Beach huts at Southwold, Suffolk.

Beach huts at Southend-on-Sea.

References

  1. ^ BBC accessed 17/02/08
  2. ^ "History - Pre and Post European settlement to 1930". Brighton Bathing Box Association Inc.. 2008. http://www.brightonbathingbox.org.au/History.html. Retrieved 2009-01-14.
  3. ^ "Home - The Brighton Bathing Boxes Melbourne, Australia". Brighton Bathing Box Association Inc.. 2008. http://www.brightonbathingbox.org.au/index.html. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
  4. ^ The Independent accessed 16/12/2009
  5. ^ The Independent accessed 16/12/2009

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Beach huts

Categories: Coastal construction

 

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