Members of the Brooklynettes dance team perform during the second quarter between the Brooklyn Nets and the Golden State Warriors in New York on December 21, 2022. (Photo by Brad Penner/USA Today Sports)

A woman shows her inked finger after casting her ballot to vote in the first phase of India's general election at a polling station in Kalamati village, Dinhata district of Cooch Behar in the country's West Bengal state on April 19, 2024. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

Clemence Vieira of France saves the ball during the women's pool C beach volleyball match between Germany and France at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, on July 28, 2024. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A woman looks at some of the 60 plane trees wrapped in a pink-and-white polka-dot design developed especially for Melbourne by Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama titled “Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees”, in Melbourne on November 27, 2024. The National Gallery of Victoria’s (NGV) world-premiere blockbuster exhibition Yayoi Kusama will be on display from 15 December 2024 to 21 April 2025. (Photo by William West/AFP Photo)

Wisconsin forward Carter Gilmore, center, fouls UCLA guard Dylan Andrews, right, during the second half against of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, January 21, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/AP Photo)

American singer-songwriter Camila Cabello performs during the Glastonbury Festival in Worthy Farm, Somerset, England, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP Photo)

Hiroto Ishizawa of Japan falls while competing on the pommel horse during qualifications at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia on October 19, 2025. (Photo by Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters)

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”)