Beach huts lined up by the shoreline with a single sitter in Norfolk, UK
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 as a shelter from the sun or wind, 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 by either bottled gas or occasionally mains electricity. 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 Laurence Olivier. During World War II all UK beaches were closed, the reopening in the late 1940s and 1950s led to resurgence of the British beach holiday and the heyday of the Beach Hut. While many beach huts were former fishermen's huts, boatsheds or converted bathing machines, some of the earliest purpose built beach huts in the UK were erected at Bournemouth, either side of Bournemouth Pier in 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 huts are still standing, including the oldest hut number 2359 which is marked with a blue plaque, 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 such as the 1950s Overstrand beach huts at Boscombe. These were renovated to designs by Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway, founders of the Red or Dead label, as Beach Pods for the Surf Reef opened in Autumn 2000.
Size: 5616px × 3108px
Photo credit: © Scenics & Science / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: bathing, beach, cabin, huts, lined, norfolk, retirement, seaside, shoreline, single, sitter, sunshine, uk
