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”)

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)

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)

These heartbreaking photo show a confused family of elephants attempting to navigate a railway line built straight through their habitat on October 16, 2012. Taken by Biplab Hazra in Bishnupur, India, the images show the extreme lengths the inhabitants of the town go to to deter elephants from damaging their crops and property. As the images show, villagers often resort to extreme tactics in an effort to drive the elephants out with one shocking photograph revealing firebombs being launched at a mother and calf as they cross the road. Elephants encroaching out of their habitats is an increasingly common occurrence with deforestation in much of India. (Photo by Biplab Hazra/Caters News Agency)

“A meteor streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and injuring more than 500 people (20 had been hospitalized in serious condition), many of them hurt by broken glass. “There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. Everyone was going around to people's houses to check if they were OK”, said Sergey Hametov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, about 1500 kilometres (930 miles) east of Moscow, the biggest city in the affected region”. (Photo by Alexey Bulaew/RIA Nowosti)

Sumo wrestlers perform a show fight during an annual sumo tournament dedicated to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan on April 16, 2018. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

Paragliders fly towards the landing area of the “Acro Show” above Lake Geneva in Villeneuve, Switzerland on Sunday, August 26, 2018. (Photo by Valentin Flauraud/Keystone via AP Photo)

Kim Kardashian West attends the opening night of the new musical “The Cher Show” on Broadway at Neil Simon Theatre on December 03, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)