The best seaside towns in England
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In the early 18th century, the English regarded their shoreline with distaste. The seaside towns in England were exposed to the tides and prone to landslides and gales, it was the domain of fishermen, smugglers and those relegated to society’s margins. In the decades that followed, a dramatic reimagining recast the English seaside as a place for health, pleasure and rest. A triumphant rebranding job, the seaside resort has proved one of England’s most successful and widely exported inventions.
Spurred on by the rise of rail travel in the Victorian era, by the 20th century, millions were visiting seaside towns in England. Resorts proliferated along every English coastline, offering a cornucopia of architectural highlights – from the fantasy of Brighton’s Pavilion to the spectacular Blackpool Tower, built to rival the Eiffel Tower and the magnificent modernism of Morecambe’s Midland Hotel in the 1930s. Piers, promenades, arcades, pleasure parks, beach huts and elaborate shelters were designed to delight and entertain. The seaside exerted a gravitational pull on the English imagination, inspiring painters, writers and filmmakers. Sand, ice creams, chilly seas, wind breaks and donkey rides became part of the cultural imagination – even after cheap flights brought the Mediterranean Sea within reach, which meant neglected late-20th-century seaside towns. Today, nostalgia and the depth of affection are powering a new wave of reinvention. Prime examples include Margate’s Turner Contemporary, Folkestone’s beautiful redevelopment and unparalleled collection of public art, Lowestoft’s South Beach, and the recently agreed £100 million outpost of the Eden Project on Morecambe’s seafront.
Sam Mendes’ beautiful Margate-set film, Empire of Light, reminds us that the seaside resort taps into England’s most tender dreams of redemption and hope. This is the place for second chances and last chances. I lost count of the number of piers whose elaborate Victorian ironwork was festooned with padlocks, mementos, artificial flowers and framed photos, marking rites of passage of love, death and birth. The seaside is a place designed to allow and forgive the sentimental. It is quintessentially part of being English. Madeleine Bunting
The Seaside: England’s Love Affair, by Madeleine Bunting, is out now.