French actress Frederique Bel arrives for the NRJ Music Awards ceremony at the Festival Palace in Cannes December 13, 2014. (Photo by Eric Gaillard/Reuters)

A photo taken on July 22, 2017 shows beach- goers dancing at the West Sea Barrage beach outside the coastal city of Nampo, southwest of Pyongyang. The West Sea Barrage beach features as a stopping point for foreign tourists, and is a destination for North Korean work groups from the neighbouring area. The beach lies at the end of an eight- kilometre- long barrage that separates the sea from the Taedong River, which runs through Pyongyang. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

In this Thursday, October 5, 2017 photo, Chile's singer-songwriter Mon Laferte performs in concert at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City. The 34-year-old artist, who just received five Latin Grammy nominations, performed three sold-out concerts at the National Auditorium, on consecutive evenings, beginning Thursday. (Photo by Eduardo Verdugo/AP Photo)

A camel herder removes the rope from the mouth of a camel at the Pushkar Fair in Rajasthan, India, November 22, 2015. Thousands of animals, mainly camels, are brought to the annual fair to be traded. (Photo by Jitendra Prakash/Reuters)

Workers sleep on a railway track under repair in New Delhi, India, June 15, 2018. (Photo by Saumya Khandelwal/Reuters)

Hannan Iskandar gets ready before she starts to drive her car in her neighborhood, in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia on June 24, 2018. Saudi Arabia ended its longstanding ban on women driving on June 24, 2018 – and the second the clock struck midnight, women across the country started their engines. (Photo by Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters)

Indian commuters wade through floodwaters during the continuous rain shower in Calcutta, India, July 10, 2015. A monsoon shower hit the city and disrupted daily life. The Indian monsoon, takes place between May and September. (Photo by Piyal Adhikary/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”)