A dazzling catalog of architecturally diverse British seaside
shelters, left to ruin
A testament to the heyday of British summer holidays in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries (and the country's notoriously fickle weather),
seaside shelters provided a spot for British beachgoers to get out of
the sun or the rain. Seaside towns, competing to attract visitors,
installed these colorful structures on their beaches in a dizzying array
of architectural styles, from Victorian to art deco to Bauhaus-inspired.
The shelters started to fall into disrepair as low-cost air travel lured
British holidaymakers away from the seaside; most of the shelters now
stand deserted.
In Seaside Shelters, the London-based architectural photographer Will
Scott celebrates the wide variety of shelters dotting the British
coastline, documenting this disappearing vernacular architecture at
iconic resorts and lesser-known coastal gems alike, including Blackpool,
Great Yarmouth, the Isle of Wight, Clacton-on-Sea, Portsmouth,
Aberystwyth, Swanage and Cromer.