The beach hut is an iconic feature of the Britsih coast.
In the nineteenth century no trip to the seaside was complete without a dip in the sea from a bathing machine – a sort of beach hut on wheels drawn down to the sea by a horse that could be hired for half an hour.
But bathing machines were not invented by the Victorians. whole century before Victoria came to the throne in 1837 mobile changing rooms for the wealthy but infirm were in use at Scarborough, the UK’s first seaside resort.
As it became more acceptable for people to walk across the beach in their bathing costumes, villages of stripy changing tents emerged on the Edwardian sands.
Modern blocks of beach huts and chalets were built as part of huge lidos in the inter-war years when sunbathing became the latest fashion.
Holidaymakers hit the beaches in their millions at the end of the Second World War when the barbed wire was rolled up and taken away, and dedicated fans made the 1950s the real heyday of the classic beach hut.
Interest waned in beach huts in the latter half of the 20th century, but people have now fallen in love with them again and they can now reach the heady heights of £350,000 in the south.
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