A model poses at the Le Silla Spring/Summer 2012 presentation as part Milan Womenswear Fashion Week on September 23, 2011 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Vincenzo Lombardo/Getty Images for Le Silla)

Starlings come home to roost on Brighton's Old Pier as the sun sets on December 21, 2011 in Brighton, England. December 21 marks the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Members of Brighton Swimming Club brave the early morning temperature to take a dip in the sea east of the pier on January 5, 2022. The club, founded in 1860, is the oldest in England. (Photo by Simon Dack/Alamy Live News)

Handout photo provided by ParalympicsGB of Piers Gilliver competing in the Individual Sabre A - Men event during day six of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games on Tuesday, September 3, 2024. (Photo by ParalympicsGB/PA 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”)

Models walk the runway at the Yandy Swim Show during February 2017 New York Fashion Week at Pier 59 on February 14, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

Waves break against the pier at Tynemouth, on the North East coast, England on March 30, 2020. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)

The sun rises over the Baltic Sea and a pier with a tea house in Timmendorfer Strand, Germany, Sunday, August 7, 2022. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)