Fireworks explode over the Kremlin in Red Square which was blocked by police during New Year celebrations in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, January 1, 2017. New Year's Eve is Russia's major gift-giving holiday, and big Russian cities were awash in festive lights and decorations. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr./AP Photo)

American Yoga teacher Dashama poses on a Yoga-board during a preview of the 46th International Boat Fair in Duesseldorf January 16, 2015. The BOOT 2015 watersports fair, with more than 1,600 international exhibitors will run in Duesseldorf from January 17 to January 25. (Photo by Ina Fassbender/Reuters)

Kurdish guard women from the civilian protection unit which supports the Democratic Forces of Syria, cheer near the Syrian town of al Houl in Hasaka province, after the Democratic Forces of Syria took control of the area, November 14, 2015. A U.S.-backed Syrian rebel alliance on Friday captured the town of al Houl in Hasaka province, which had been held by Islamic State militants, a spokesman for the Kurdish fighters, part of the grouping, said. It was the first significant advance against IS by the Democratic Forces of Syria, which was formed last month. (Photo by Rodi Said/Reuters)

Contestants of a tourism beauty pageant balance eggs on their collarbones as they cruise along the Yellow River in Jiyuan, Henan province, China, June 22, 2015. The contestants believe that if they are slim enough, their collarbones will allow them to balance the eggs securely on their bodies. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Cuban-American artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada's six-acre sand and soil “facescape” stretches across the JFK Hockey Field on the north side of the Reflecting Pool along the National Mall October 1, 2014 in Washington, DC. Titled “Out of Many, One” and composed of 2,500 tons of sand, 800 tons of top soil and eight miles of string, the piece is the artist's interpreative blending of 30 different men's faces. Rodriguez-Gereda used high-precision global positioning satellites to place 10,000 wood pegs as waypoints for the giant face. The piece will be open to the public beginning October 4 and will eventually be tilled back into the earth. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

An Afghan girl harvests Cotton buds at a field on the outskirts of Balkh province, Afghanistan, November 15, 2014. (Photo by Sayed Mustafa/EPA)

A Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar (R), who tried to cross the Naf river into Bangladesh to escape sectarian violence, cries near his family in a Bangladeshi Coast guard station in Teknaf on June 19, 2012, before being sent back to Myanmar. (Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP Photo)

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”)