A man feeds langur monkeys during a lockdown amid the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic in Pushkar on April 28, 2021. (Photo by Himanshu Sharma/AFP Photo)

A protester scuffles with a member of Israeli security forces during a demonstration in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, on December 17, 2021. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP Photo)

A man smokes a water pipe sitting on a bench with his pet parrot at the Ain al Mreisseh seaside promenade in Beirut on June 28, 2024. (Photo by Joseph Eid/AFP Photo)

A member of the Brotherhood of the Diablos Danzantes de Chuao (Dancing Devils of Chuao) arranges his mask during the Corpus Christi festival in the town of Chuao, Aragua state, Venezuela on June 18, 2025. (Photo by Maxwell Briceno/Reuters)

Jakelyne Oliveira, Miss Brazil 2013 performs onstage during the Miss Universe 2013 preliminary competition in Moscow, Russia, 05 November 2013. The final of the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant will take place at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow on 09 November. (Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA)

While the lido was described as bringing “modernism to the masses” on the British coast it was just the latest example of a trend that had been developing since Victorian times – transforming seaside towns into resorts for leisure and entertainment. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the fashion was for local authorities to build great piers stretching from the promenade out into the sea. The Eastbourne Pier, pictured here in May 1931, was erected between 1866 and 1870 to an ingenious design by Eugenius Birch, which saw the structure sitting on special cups allowing the supporting struts to “move” in bad weather. Arranged on the pier's 1,000-foot length were kiosks, a theatre, a ballroom and a camera obscura. 1931. (Photo by Aerofilms Collection via “A History of Britain From Above”)

Jennifer Oeser of Germany competes in the Women's Heptathlon Long Jump on Day 8 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on August 13, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

A young woman holds her smartphone at Red Square with the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower, right, and St. Basil Cathedral, center, in the background in Moscow, Russia, Monday, July 25, 2016. (Photo by Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo)