A rainbow appears as people enjoy a warm afternoon on a tour boat at Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada on October 21, 2024. (Photo by Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via 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”)

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)

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)

A pet dog reacts while wearing a “Voltes V” themed costume during a “Pawshion Show” to mark World Animal Day in Marikina City, Metro Manila, Philippines 04 October 2023. A village in Marikina enjoined owners and animal lovers to play dress-up with their pets and participate in a fashion-show themed activity to entertain the community on World Animal Day and mark the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals in the Roman Catholic religion. (Photo by Rolex Dela Pena/EPA)

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)

The sun sets over the Mediterranean sea as a nine-branched Hanukkah menorah (Hanukkiah) is pictured by the coast in Netanya on December 31, 2024. (Photo by Jack Guez/AFP Photo)

This handout photo taken and released on October 5, 2021 by Russian Space Agency Roscosmos shows Russian crew member, actress Yulia Peresild forming a heart with her hands as her spacesuit is tested prior to the launch onboard the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome. (Photo by Andrey Shelepin/Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP Photo)