An interior of a car damaged by the floods is pictured in the town of Braunsbach, Germany, May 30, 2016. The flood tore through Braunsbach, crushing cars, ripping corners of houses and flooding homes during a storm that hit southwestern Germany. Miraculously no one in Braunsbach was killed, though three people died as a result of the storm in other parts of the country. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

A Pelican attempts to take a persons belongings while they are sat in St James' Park, London on Monday, August 11, 2025. Temperatures will soar above 30°C in parts of the UK in the coming days, with another heatwave possible in some areas. (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images)

It doesn’t make for the most flattering photoshoot, but there is a reason these zebras at Lewa wildlife conservancy in Kenya in the second decade of August 2025 are stood head to tail: they use their tails to swat flies from each others’ faces. (Photo by Andrew Campbell/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A man selling bags of water is seen at a taxi parking bay lined with campaign posters in the district of Lingwala in Kinshasa on December 18, 2018. Democratic Republic of Congo goes to the polls on December 23, 2018 in elections which could see the country emerge from 17 years of conflict-ridden rule under controversial President Joseph Kabila. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)

Palestinians kids from the West Bank Palestinian village Umm Al Rajaj cross the Meitar checkpoint into Israel on their way to the beach of Tel Aviv for the first time, Israel, 10 August 2016. A group of humanitarian Israeli women called in Arabic “Min Al Baher” (from the sea) voluntarily arranges authorizations and transportation for Palestinians families that live in the West Bank to cross into Israel in order to visit the sea for the first time. (Photo by Abir Sultan/EPA)

Sculptor Jiri Genzer of the Czech Republic carves an ice sculpture at the Disney Dreams Ice Festival in Antwerp November 27, 2014. Some 60 artists from all over the world participated in the festival, making sculptures out of around 500 tonnes of ice. The festival will open on November 29 until January 11, 2015. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

General view of the monument to memory of soldiers who liberated the city of Knin – in Knin, Croatia on November 10, 2014. Across the former Yugoslavia stand giant monuments to a state that no longer exists, once visited and celebrated during public holidays such as Republic Day on November 29, marking the creation of socialist Yugoslavia. Many are now neglected or ignored, aging symbols of a joint state forged during World War Two but torn apart by nationalism half a century later. Republic Day is no longer marked in any of the seven independent states that emerged from its ashes. (Photo by Antonio Bronic/Reuters)

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”)