Heads for humanoid robots lie on a table at the office of developer Ex-Robots in Dalian, Liaoning province, China on June 6, 2024. (Photo by Florence Lo/Reuters)

The DFDS Princess seaways heads into the River Tyne in rough seas today, Friday January 21, 2022. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)

Performers during the New Year's Day Parade in London on Monday, January 1, 2024. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

Aerial view of people circling around bonfires to celebrate the Torch Festival on Axilixi Prairie on July 20, 2024 in Bijie, Guizhou Province of China. (Photo by Luo Dafu/VCG via Getty Images)

Model Juliana Paesthe (C) of Viradouro samba school participates in the annual carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro's Sambadrome, February 15, 2015. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

The shadow of a partial eclipse is cast on to the cheek of a student on the roof of the Jana Dlugosza Academy in Czestochowa, Poland March 20, 2015. (Photo by Grzegorz Skowronek/Reuters/Agencja Gazeta)

A Nepalese boy gets ready to perform a stick dance during a rally held to pay tribute to the victims of an earthquake, in Bhaktapur, Nepal, Wednesday, September 2, 2015. Two powerful earthquakes in April and May devastated the Himalayan nation killing more than 8,800 people. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

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”)