Selling the Seaside
The modern seaside resort was born in England, and what better way to experience some of our glorious historic seaside towns than through the delights of the picture postcard.
Picture postcards and the seaside go hand-in-hand
Holidaymakers have been sending picture postcards since the 1890s. They were designed to show off the delights of our favourite seaside resorts and to entice new visitors. The picture postcard has been a success for over a century. Here are some of our favourites from the collections of the Historic England Archive.
Blackpool
Blackpool was the world's first working-class seaside resort. It's Pleasure Beach amusement park evolved from the 1890s into what has become one of England's most popular tourist attractions. Full of innovative and exciting rides, it is now home to an amazing six buildings of historic significance, all listed Grade II, including The Big Dipper and Sir Hiram Maxim's Captive Flying Machine.
Great Yarmouth
Patients were sent to 'take the air of the sea' at Great Yarmouth as early as 1619. The town expanded greatly from the early 19th century and soon offered visitors a vast array of leisure and entertainment buildings. These included two pleasure piers, the Winter Gardens (imported from Torquay), an aquarium, the earliest surviving seaside cinema, and The Hippodrome circus - one of only three in the world to have an arena that turns into a pool for aquatic displays.
Torquay
Torquay evolved from a small coastal village to a thriving seaside resort. This view shows the waterside Princess Gardens, created from land reclaimed from Tor Bay, and in the distance the Baths Saloons - a multi-functional health and leisure complex that included a swimming pool with access to the sea, a Medical Department and reading rooms. Opening in 1857, it became the social hub of the resort.
Whitley Bay
Confusion with the Yorkshire resort of Whitby led to Whitley being renamed Whitley Bay. With the natural charms of its wide, sandy beach and rugged dunes, plus easy access from Newcastle upon Tyne and towns and villages along the North East coast, Whitley Bay's popularity was assured in the later 19th century.
Morecambe
Visitors from inland towns were coming to Morecambe by the early 19th century 'for the benefit of the physic in the sea'. Its popularity with workers from the Yorkshire and Lancashire industrial towns stimulated the construction to two piers, tidal paddling pools, winter gardens, amusement park and the Super Swimming Stadium. The arrival of the railway not only influenced its growth, it has also left us with one of the country's finest seaside hotels, Oliver Hill's Midland Hotel of 1932-3.
Skegness
A number of sea-bathing facilities had emerged along the Lincolnshire coast by the end of the 18th century. Around this time, Skegness was a small inland settlement and it wasn't until the 1870s that the resort grew rapidly to service the demands of trippers from the towns and cities of the East Midlands. A pier was built over the sands, and gardens and amusements laid out at the edge of the beach.
Herne Bay
A new resort was developed beside the village of Herne Bay by local landowner Sir Henry Oxenden in the early 19th century. The construction of a pier in 1831-2 improved access for visitors travelling by steamer from London but grand hopes for investment in hotels and baths for 'the Nobility and Visitors' never really took off. However, over 52,000 visitors arrived by steamer in 1842. Herne Bay's majestic seafront Bandstand opened in 1924.
Cromer
Once a prosperous medieval fishing village, Cromer's fortunes were revived in the late 18th century as the fashion for sea bathing took hold. Noted as a respectable watering place in Jane Austen's novel 'Emma' (1814), it was considered by the author of an 1841 guidebook as a 'paradise for the clergy and old ladies'. However, this splendid isolation was ended by the opening of railway stations in 1877 and 1887, which stimulated much investment and construction in the town.
Bexhill-on-Sea
England's seaside resorts are home to many iconic structures, from Blackpool Tower to the scores of pleasure piers that extend into the sea. Modernism found a second home as the seaside and this picture postcard features one of England's greatest examples - the De La Warr Pavilion. Perfectly embodying the spirit of its age, the Pavilion opened in 1935 and featured an auditorium, restaurant, conference hall, library and sun terrace. Following extensive refurbishment, the Grade I listed De La Warr Pavilion remains the focal point of the resort.
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