From the waters edge a New York policeman urges two young children to put their bathing costumes back on. (Photo by Ed Clarity/Keystone/Getty Images). July 1949

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)

A man dressed in a condom costume walks at Caleta Portales beach, during a summer awareness campaign by the Chilean Corporation for the Prevention of AIDS in Valparaiso city, northwest of Santiago January 9, 2015. (Photo by Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters)

A brown bear is checked by foreign veterinaries and local staff members at the Four Paws Bear Sanctuary in Pristina, on May 9, 2014. (Photo by Hazir Reka/Reuters)

A Brazil fan enjoys the atmosphere prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Semi Final match between Brazil and Germany at Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on Jule 8, 2014. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Spencer Slate, costumed as a scuba-diving Easter bunny, is shown in this handout photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau as he hides eggs amid eel grass, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Key Largo, Florida March 31, 2013. About 80 adults and children participated in an Underwater Easter Egg Hunt, seeking real hard-boiled eggs painted with non-toxic food coloring to avoid adverse effects on the marine ecosystem. (Photo by Bob Care/Reuters/Florida Keys News Bureau)

This picture shows a two-year old orangutan seized from a residents house at the provincial Nature Conservation and Agency (BKSDSA) office in Banda Aceh on September 16, 2014. The critically-endangered primates population are dwindling rapidly due to poaching and rapid destruction of their forest habitat that is being converted into palm oil plantations. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

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”)