C O N T E X T 1 3 0 : J U LY 2 0 1 3 15 side heritage seaside ritage Our seaside her Our seaside heritag seaside heritage Our itage Our seaside her seaside heritage Our seaside he FRED GRAY Seaside architecture The conservation picture is one of decay, but new ways of experiencing seaside nature may produce new forms of seaside architecture or new uses for existing buildings. The invention of the western seaside as a site of leisure and pleasure three centuries ago went hand-in-hand with the development of a novel urban form – the seaside resort – and the emergence of a new pleasure architecture beside the sea. Architecture, in varied innovative forms, became an essential ingredient fashioning the seaside. As an artificial confection designed to entice people seeking leisure and pleasure – and often health – and usually intended to generate income and a profit, seaside architecture became the glue of individual resorts and a defining characteristic distinguishing one seaside place from another. At its best, resort architecture turned the seaside into exotic and extraordinary places, easily contrasted with ordinary inland places. The most influential seaside architecture makes the most of being ‘on the front’ and beside the sea. Its form and function, and how it is used, helps expose the fascinating relationships between society and nature found in places literally on the edge. Contemporary British seaside resorts are multi-layered places, redolent with meaning for the present and memory of the past. The derelict holiday camp, ruined pier, restored pavilion, windswept promenade shelter and cheerful seafront boarding house, all suggest holidays and lives past, present and future. And, at the present-day British seaside, the ebb and flow over three centuries of resort architecture have resulted in complex and often intransigent conservation issues. Seaside architecture is best defined broadly and liberally. It includes not only obvious structures such as piers and pavilions, but also the minutiae of beach huts and promenade railings and shelters, to the larger scale of holiday camps and complete resorts designed as a single entity. Designed open spaces, including the beach and seafront with promenades and parades and seaside parks and gardens, are also essential components of the physical fabric and tone of seaside resorts. Reflecting the regulated and medicinal consumption of seawater, the bathing machine, perhaps the most curious piece of seaside architecture (and the associated bathing rooms and seawater baths) was the chief architectural manifestation of the 18th century seaside resort. Apart from a very few innovative original purpose-built resort buildings where a seafront location and sea view were prioritised, in the initial phase of resort development, in places such as Scarborough, Margate, Hastings and Brighton, there was no great clamour to build as close to the sea as possible.The concern appears more to have been to be in sight of polite society (than views of watery nature) and with the provision of all the attractions of the established and competing inland spas, from the spa building themselves to parades, assembly rooms and libraries. From the late 18th century, however, and at an important turning point in elite society’s perceptions Far left: Embassy Court, Brighton Dreamland, Margate, in 1936
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