Hot air balloons fly over the sky in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand, December 6, 2014. The two-day International Balloon festival 2014 featuring balloon pilots from Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Britain, and Czech Republic is held on December 06-07 2014 to celebrate Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 87th birthday and also aimed to promote the tourism industry in Chiang Mai northern city. (Photo by Pongmanat Tasiri/EPA)

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”)

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas embraces a robot used in the film Automata during a photocall on the third day of the 62nd San Sebastian Film Festival, September 21, 2014. Banderas stars in and produced the science fiction film, which is part of the festival's official section. (Photo by Vincent West/Reuters)

Cuban-American artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada's six-acre sand and soil “facescape” stretches across the JFK Hockey Field on the north side of the Reflecting Pool along the National Mall October 1, 2014 in Washington, DC. Titled “Out of Many, One” and composed of 2,500 tons of sand, 800 tons of top soil and eight miles of string, the piece is the artist's interpreative blending of 30 different men's faces. Rodriguez-Gereda used high-precision global positioning satellites to place 10,000 wood pegs as waypoints for the giant face. The piece will be open to the public beginning October 4 and will eventually be tilled back into the earth. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Porters carry the carcasses of a shark (L) and a Marlin (R) to the local market in Hamarweyne near the port of Mogadishu on the Indian Ocean coast on November 18, 2014 in the Somalia capital as fishermen bring in their catch. (Photo by Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP Photo)

Marieke van der Meer from the Netherlands works on her sculpture “Flora” at the sand sculpture show in Binz on Ruegen island, Germany, 09 March 2016. With the motto “Fascination Nature”, 50 sand artists have created oversized sculptures. The sculptors use 16,000 tons of special sand that is pressed into big blocks first and then formed. The 7th sand sculpture show on 5,600 square meters of exhibition ground opens on 12 March 2016. (Photo by Ens Buettner/EPA)

A man grimaces walking by the “Lettuce Ladies”, a group of PETA activists, during an event promoting a vegan lifestyle, downtown Bucharest, Romania, Monday, August 14, 2017. Two PETA vegan ambassadors distributed vegan food to passers by in the Romanian capital, the latest stop in a tour including the United States, Russia and Turkey aimed at promoting a vegan lifestyle. The sign reads in Romanian “start fresh: become vegan”. (Photo by Andreea Alexandru/AP Photo)

A woman rides the world's longest urban zip line, with a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour on a one kilometer run from 170 meter to ground level, in the Marina district of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, December 5, 2017. (Photo by Kamran Jebreili/AP Photo)