Palestinians gather at the beach in Israel's coastal city of Tel Aviv on June 29, 2023 on the second day of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP Photo)

Models turned into “humanoid” robots pose on a train at Waterloo Station on October 2, 2016 in London, England for the launch of new Sky Atlantic TV drama Westworld. (Photo by Matt Alexander/PA Wire)

A Palestinian man performs fire breathing on the beach in Gaza City on 02 September 2022. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A team of ten acrobats form the shape of a racehorse crossing the winning post ridden by Stefanie Hofer to celebrate the upcoming Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup at Ascot Racecourse on July 29, 2014 in Ascot, England. The Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup is the only team-format raceday in the UK and takes place on 9th August. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse)

A kid wearing rollerblades hitches a ride via motorbike, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, October 25, 2015. The country held the first-round presidential vote Sunday. Haitians chose between 54 presidential hopefuls and a slew of legislative and municipal candidates. (Photo by Ricardo Arduengo/AP Photo)

Arizona Cardinals cheerleader Claire Thorton, center, smiles as Air Force Capt. Eric Straub proposes to her during the first half of an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins, Sunday, October 12, 2014, in Glendale, Ariz. Thorton accepted the proposal. (Photo by Rick Scuteri/AP Photo)

Tour guides wearing traditional Chinese dress practice smiling by biting chopsticks at Qingming Grand-River Park in Kaifeng, central China's Henan Province on March 2, 2017, aiming to provide better service for visitors. (Photo by IPA Asia via ZUMA Wire)

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”)