Twentieth-Century Seaside Architecture

A nostalgic exploration of Britain’s distinctive and architecturally significant seafront buildings from the 1920s to the new millennium.

British seaside resorts enjoyed phenomenal popularity for much of the twentieth century and as climate change strikes in the modern era, domestic travel has witnessed a renewed popularity. Told chronologically, this book is the first look at how resort architecture around the UK coast kept pace with changing fashions and the increasing competition of foreign destinations.

Using vintage postcards, Kathryn Ferry showcases the inherent playfulness of seaside architecture as it evolved from interwar classicism, through art deco and international modernism, to Festival of Britain–inspired mid-century style, then later to seafront tower blocks and the artificial beaches of 1970s leisure centers. Featuring a wide range of building types, Twentieth-Century Seaside Architecture explores everything from beach huts and bandstands to lidos, piers, theatres, hotels, and amusement arcades and offers a compelling reassessment of domestic tourism that will appeal to architecture and design fans who love to reside by the sea.