Danny Batsalkin holds a rifle during the annual National Rifle Association (NRA) meeting in Dallas, Texas, U.S., May 18, 2024. (Photo by Shelby Tauber/Reuters)

France's athlete Auriana Lazraq-Khlass celebrates second place in the women's heptathlon final during the European Athletics Championships at the Olympic stadium in Rome on June 8, 2024. (Photo by Filippo Monteforte/AFP Photo)

Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the U.S. compete in the ice dance rhythm dance program at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating series competition in Tokyo, Japan, Friday, November 8, 2024. (Photo by Hiro Komae/AP Photo)

Mercedes' team members practice a pit stop with the car of Italian driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli ahead of the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai on March 20, 2025. (Photo by Héctor Retamal/AFP Photo)

Monae' Nichols of the United States competes in the preliminary round of the long jump competition during ATHLOS NYC25 on October 09, 2025 at Times Square in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Athlos/Getty Images)

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”)

Clowns pose for a picture during the International Clown Day in Guadalajara, Mexico, on December 10, 2019. (Photo by Ulises Ruiz/AFP Photo)

A girl yawns as she and others wait for the start of their first day in school, an occasion known as the Day of Knowledge, in the small town Ignalina, some 110km (68 miles) north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday, September 2, 2019. (Photo by Mindaugas Kulbis/AP Photo)