The British Seaside

The annual seaside holiday became a common experience in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, and it has a central place in our popular memory. Its recent decline has prompted nostalgia and gloom across the media, with a spate of newspaper features every summer bemoaning its decline. This is a detailed academic cultural study of the rise and fall of the seaside holiday in Britain. John K. Walton offers a broad interpretation of the holidays and resorts, looking at who went, where they went, what they did, and how they were entertained. The study also details the conflicts over employment, access to and use of space, entertainment preferences and environmental issues that resulted from the seaside mixtures of hedonism and respectability. Issues of display and conformity, fun, recreation and retirement, employers, workers and customers are also discussed.