Above: Looking east in the Main Bay (now Viking Bay) at Broadstairs.
We are going to take a look at the beach, in this case at Broadstairs, in Kent. The sea air at various seaside resorts was considered beneficial for all kinds of ailments and people had been in the habit of travelling to seaside towns since at least the 17th century. With the coming of the railways, more and more people were within reach of the coast and holidays to the middle- and upper classes took off from the 1860s onwards. Once staying at the coastal town, walking on the beach was a great pastime. You could do that with all your clothes on – as well as your hat! But what about paddling in the sea? For a man, that could be done by taking off his shoes and socks and rolling up his trouser legs. For a woman, it was not so simple. In the words of the song “In olden days, a glimpse of stocking | Was looked on as something shocking” which meant that, even if you removed your shoes and also your stockings, the very idea of walking with bare exposed legs – even on a beach – was not for every girl!
Then, of course, there was the question of what to do if you wanted to swim in the sea. It all hinged on being able to undress and change into your bathing costume. For a man, there were bathing huts erected on the beach which could be hired. They were made of canvas stretched over a wooden frame. We can see them in the photograph. Once you had changed, you could walk across the beach and enjoy a swim in the sea. But for ladies, it was not so simple. If you changed in a bathing hut on the beach, people could stare at your bare legs and, in fact, all of your body if you then stepped out and walked towards the sea. That would never do! The answer was to walk into a bathing machine, as they were called, change into your swimming costume and then get someone to move the bathing machine into the sea.
Bathing machines were on wheels, with a door at each end. The lady approached the bathing machine across the beach fully clothed. Each bathing machine was on wheels – rather like a small cart. The bathing machine was pulled into deep water – about four feet deep, maybe – by a horse and its driver. Once in the required position, the driver rode the horse back to the beach. The lady descended a short flight of stairs at the seaward end of the machine, sometimes accompanied by a lady to assist her, and got herself into the sea – out of sight of prying eyes. It was all a bit of a performance for the person intending to take a swim. Once the swim was over, the bathing machine had to be pulled back to the beach by the horse and the lady got dressed before leaving the privacy of the little hut on wheels.
In the photograph, the bathing machines are lined up side-by-side near the water’s edge. There must be at least 20 of them. Payment had to be made for the hire and, no doubt, tips were given to the man with the horse and also to the lady assistant. At the time of taking the picture, the tide was about as high as it could be and the machines are seen at the edge of the water. As the tide went out, the bathing machines needed to be pulled into the water. Broadstairs was by no means unusual in having so many bathing machines. Nearly every seaside resort had them and they were in daily use during the summer months.
The date for this picture is likely to be Edwardian – between 1900 and about 1910. If you are familiar with Broadstairs, it shows the Main Bay as it was then known. From 1949 onwards, the bay was renamed Viking Bay because in 1949 the town celebrated 1,500 years since the Vikings (from Norway and Denmark) first set foot in England, landing nearby. The view of the bay has changed very little over the decades and it still looks very similar today.
-ENDS-
Know Your London 