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”)

Steampunk enthusiasts attend the sixth annual Haworth Steampunk Weekend in Haworth, northern England on November 25, 2018. The three-day alternative lifestyle festival features: music, dancers, entertainers, burlesque performers, vintage vehicles, a fashion show and a masquerade ball. Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. (Photo by Oli Scarff/AFP Photo)

Activists from the animal rights group PETA wearing bikinis and crocodile masks assist each other outside a store of the French fashion label Hermes in Sydney on March 4, 2021, as they protest against their use of crocodile skins and the recent purchases by Hermes and LVMH of crocodile farms in Australia's Northern Territory. (Photo by David Gray/AFP Photo)

A pet dog reacts while wearing a “Voltes V” themed costume during a “Pawshion Show” to mark World Animal Day in Marikina City, Metro Manila, Philippines 04 October 2023. A village in Marikina enjoined owners and animal lovers to play dress-up with their pets and participate in a fashion-show themed activity to entertain the community on World Animal Day and mark the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals in the Roman Catholic religion. (Photo by Rolex Dela Pena/EPA)

Sarah Campbell by Nick Knight and other cover shots – The Face Magazine: Culture Shift at the National Portrait Gallery in London on February 19, 2025. A new exhibition that celebrates iconic fashion images and portraits from The Face, a trail-blazing youth culture and style magazine. Bringing together 200 photographs by over 80 photographers from the 80s, 90s, 00s, the exhibition is an opportunity to see many of these images away from the magazine page for the first time. (Photo by Guy Bell/Alamy Live News)

North Koreans who signed up to join the army train in the midst of political tension with South Korea, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang August 23, 2015. Top aides to the leaders of North and South Korea resumed talks on Sunday after negotiating through the night in a bid to ease tensions involving an exchange of artillery fire that brought the peninsula to the brink of armed conflict. (Photo by Reuters/KCNA)

Rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed residential building in Makongeni estate in Nairobi December 17, 2014. Three more bodies were recovered on Wednesday night from the building that collapsed in Makongeni estate in Nairobi, raising the death toll to four, Kenya Red Cross has reported. The residential building whose sixth floor was still under construction had allegedly not been cleared for occupation by the Nairobi City County and its owner has been missing since it collapsed. A search and rescue and rescue operation is ongoing for the unknown number of people still trapped under the rubble, Kenya Red Cross also reported. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

A member of the Community Police of the FUSDEG (United Front for the Security and Development of the State of Guerrero) search for a man, who ran away upon seeing the Community Police approach as they patrolled a street, in the village of Petaquillas, on the outskirts of Chilpancingo, in the Mexican state of Guerrero, February 1, 2015. Approximately 500 members of the Community Police from the FUSDEG took control of the security of the village of Petaquillas on the night of January 30 at the request of the people tired of the actions of organized crime, local media reported. (Photo by Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters)