A shore thing

Bored of budget airlines and seeking a bit of simplicity? Pack your deck chair and set off for the British seaside—the traditional summer holiday is getting a 21st century makeover, writes Al Senter

Dig out your bucket and spade: the Great British seaside holiday is making a comeback. With financial and environmental issues high on many people's agendas, budget- and climate-conscious Brits will be heading to the coast this summer.

A fortnight by the sea used to be an annual tradition, as fundamentally British as fish and chips. But the growing trend for holidays abroad—helped along by dirt-cheap flights to exotic locations—has left our coastal resorts largely unloved and unvisited. Towns such as Skegness, Rhyl and Hastings, which used to teem with summer visitors, gradually sank into depression and deprivation. As the holidaymakers took their business abroad, poverty and unemployment moved in.

But business is picking up in coastal resorts around the country. A combination of airport delays, over-egged packages and budget-flight fatigue is making simple trips to the seaside ever more appealing.
Families are once again piling into the car and setting off on traditional trips to the seaside. And British resorts are responding by sprucing up their seafronts and modernising their hotels and restaurants. While market and environmental forces are leading the trend, nostalgia also exerts a powerful pull. In a recent survey by English Heritage, two-thirds of respondents agreed that "seaside towns hold a special place in my heart" and "seaside holidays and seaside towns are at the centre of our national identity". But in a country with summers that could at best be described as unpredictable, how did the seaside gain such a cherished place in our hearts?

Some resort towns developed thanks to their proximity to the cities that thrived in the industrial revolution. Others have their origins in the 19th century belief that bathing in sea water was a miraculous cure-all. The urban cholera epidemics of the Victorian era were caused, it was believed, by bad air, so the sea breezes of the coastal towns turned them into al-fresco health farms. The southern town of Worthing's motto still reflects this idea: "Ex terra copiam e mari salutem," meaning "From the land plenty, and from the sea health".

Blackpool was the obvious destination for the thousands of workers in the factories of the Lancashire cotton towns. When the mills closed for a week in the summer, the employees would head for the delights of the seaside. Blackpool has always been the brassy barmaid of seaside resorts. Its world-famous tower opened in 1894, while the flashy Illuminations date from 1879. And despite the country-wide decline in seaside tourists, plucky Blackpool keeps luring them in—the 42-acre Pleasure Beach is still the country's most-visited paid-for tourist attraction, attracting 5.7 million visitors a year. In fact, more people visit Blackpool each year than the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, the pyramids at Giza or the Taj Mahal.

Brighton, similarly, has remained upbeat over recent years, despite the decline of some of its neighbours. Its laid-back vibe and reputation for hedonism mean this bustling fun-town attracts a constant stream of pleasure seekers. The Prince of Wales, who went on to become George IV, first visited Brighton in 1786 and made the Royal Pavilion his private resort, developing it from a farm house into a riot of Indian-style onion domes and exotic, multi-coloured banqueting rooms.

When the railway arrived in 1841, the crowds followed, keen to kick back and breathe in some of that medicinal sea air. Brighton's famous pier, along with the hundreds of others around the coastline,
allowed huge steamers to dock next to the promenade, bringing tourists by the shipload.

Over the past decades, Brighton has become a magnet for raucous stag and hen parties, but with more boutique hotels and smart restaurants opening, it's still a haven for those seeking fresh sea air accompanied by a lively, bohemian atmosphere.

On the east coast, Scarborough and Skegness fulfilled a similar function to Blackpool, drawing their market from the nearby industrial towns in the 19th century. The former grew popular as a spa town, while Skegness, in Lincolnshire, became famous for being the location of the first Butlins holiday resort. Launched by Billy Butlin in 1936, it was promptly taken over for military use during World War II. But after the war, Butlin's empire of all-inclusive, entertainment-heavy holiday resorts—staffed by the legendary redcoats—expanded rapidly. In its heyday, Britain's coastline was home to nine Butlins resorts, and the company ran hotels as far afield as Spain and the Bahamas. Only three Butlins resorts remain, but punters still check in to the original in Skegness for an updated version of the old-fashioned holiday camp. The other two are in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, and Minehead, Somerset. 

Bournemouth's developers, meanwhile, took a different approach to tourism. From the 19th century, it set its sights on a certain class of holidaymaker. Whelk stalls were forbidden on the promenade, and slot machines weren't permitted on the pier until the 1960s. The crowds from the cities first arrived at Bournemouth's genteel shoreline when the long-resisted railway arrived in 1870. This year, Europe's first artificial surf reef is being built in nearby Boscombe, in the hope of attracting the growing number of wave-seeking tourists. The village is enjoying about £9m of investment, including designers Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway (of Red or Dead fame), who have converted the 1958 Overstrand building into a complex of "super" beach huts on the promenade.

Like Bournemouth, Torquay was also slow to welcome the urban hordes. The Devon town only agreed the railway could be extended in 1859. From 1926, the Atlantic Coast Express (or ACE for short) powered its way out of London's Waterloo, bound for coastal destinations throughout Devon and Cornwall, before running out of steam in 1964. The birthplace of Agatha Christie, Torquay holds a festival in her memory each September, with theatre, dances, tours and crime-writing workshops.

While these big-name resort towns have a compelling mix of historic buildings and modern attractions, the British coastline has plenty of lesser-known treasures. Small seaside towns and villages are home to quiet beaches, personalised B&Bs and cosy pubs. Towns such as Southwold, Rock, Bexhill and Littlehampton have all become fashionable summer hideaways in recent years. Whitley Bay holds a renowned jazz festival, Sidmouth is famous for its folk festival, and Bridlington's renovated Spa ballroom and theatre reopen this summer.

Stuart Barrow from VisitBritain loves Britain's quieter seaside spots. "Try the area around the River Naze in Essex," he says. "Make sure to climb the Naze Tower, built by Elizabethans to keep watch over the surrounding countryside. And Sark, the tiny Channel Island, is a fantastic place. It's only 3.5 miles across, but you can hire a bicycle and you can lose yourself completely."