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”)

Western lowland gorilla Kijivu holds her newborn baby at the Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic. (Photo by Isifa/Getty Images)

Children watch and react as a T-Rex moves and growls in an inter-active display at Field Station Dinosaurs in Secaucus, N.J on May 25, 2012. There will be 31 types of life-sized dinosaurs displayed at the Jurassic expedition that opens Saturday, May 26. (Photo by Mel Evans/Associated Press)

A brushtail possum whose ears and legs have been burnt from recent bushfires sits in a cage before being transported to a wildlife hospital, in Batemans Bay, South of Sydney, Australia, 14 January 2020. (Photo by Steven Saphore/EPA/EFE)

Monks attend a prayer service for blessing at the Gandan Temple in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, February 5, 2020. Tibetan Buddhist temples held prayer services to support novel coronavirus-infected areas in China. The monks here were also organized to donate money to help fight against the epidemic. (Photo by Chogo/Xinhua News Agency)

Dogs wearing masks are seen at a main shopping area, in downtown Shanghai, China, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, February 16, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Chelyabinsk Airport employees take part in an exercise to evacuate aircraft passengers showing symptoms of the 2019-nCoV pneumonia-like coronavirus on February 5, 2020. (Photo by Nail Fattakhov/TASS)

Bolivian sеx workers sit during a Reuters interview before the countrywide, two-week mandatory quarantine to combat the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), decreed by Bolivia's interim government, in El Alto outskirts of La Paz, Bolivia on March 20, 2020. (Photo by Monica Machicao/Reuters)