This computer image provided Monday March 17, 2014 by the Press Office of socialist candidate to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, shows a tunnel of abandoned railway from the 19th century, now ramshackle and overgrown, turned into a cinema. Hidalgo’s plan envisions not just a green space but in the tunnels, places for farming fish and mushrooms. (Photo by AP Photo/Anne Hidalgo's Press Office)

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”)

Dancers perform during the Shirasagi-no Mai, or White Heron Dance, at the Sensoji Temple on April 09, 2023 in Tokyo, Japan. The parade, which originated in the 8th-12th century in Kyoto, was revived in 1968 to celebrate Tokyo's 100th Anniversary and to wish for peace. The dance is now held twice a year, in April and November, at the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, one of Tokyo's most popular tourist destinations for foreign visitors. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

Steampunk enthusiasts attend the sixth annual Haworth Steampunk Weekend in Haworth, northern England on November 25, 2018. The three-day alternative lifestyle festival features: music, dancers, entertainers, burlesque performers, vintage vehicles, a fashion show and a masquerade ball. Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. (Photo by Oli Scarff/AFP Photo)

Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupts, sending a column of volcanic materials as high as 16,000 feet into the sky on August 10, 2020. The volcano, one of two currently erupting in Indonesia, was dormant for four centuries before exploding in 2010, killing two people. Another eruption in 2014 killed 16 people, while seven died in a 2016 eruption. (Photo by Sutanta Aditya/Abaca/Sipa USA via AP Images)

Revellers attend the Saint Patrick's Day parade on March 17, 2019 in Dublin, Ireland. Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland is celebrated around the world on St. Patrick's Day. According to legend Saint Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to Irish pagans in the 5th-century after becoming a Christian missionary. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Shiite Muslim pilgrims march with banners towards the shrine city of Karbala ahead of the Arbaeen commemorations that mark the end of the 40-day mourning period for the seventh century killing of the Prophet Mohamed's grandson Imam Hussein ibn Ali, in the city of Nasiriyah in Iraq's southern Dhi Qar province on August 14, 2024. (Photo by Asaad Niazi/AFP Photo)

A woman looks at an artwork during the preview of the Art Paris 2020 held at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, September 9, 2020. Originally scheduled for April, Art Paris, France's second-biggest modern and contemporary art fair, opens its door to the public from Sept. 10 to 13. (Photo by Chine Nouvelle/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)