Seaside Architecture: Miniature Sheet

These covers are hand made from the finest quality linen textured paper.

The seaside town evolved as a place where the visitor could find a fantasy environment and enjoy entertainments that could not be found elsewhere.
The seaside holiday is a British invention. Scarborough has the honour of being the world’s first seaside resort and is also the location of the first recorded use of the ‘bathing machine’ (1735). It was in the 18th century that visits to the seaside for the health effects of the sea air became fashionable with the wealthy. Getting to the coast though could pose a problem with the choice of expensive stage coaches or slow sailing vessels.
The first piers arose as a solution to reaching these seaside watering places. The first (Ryde Pier, on the Isle of Wight, 1814) was simply a platform to make getting on and off boats easier. With the growth in reliable steam-driven vessels and regular services to places like Margate and Weymouth, piers became the alternative to wading through water or being carried ashore from the boats.