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The beach first became popular in England during the 18th century. Visits to the beach became popular throughout Europe and America. There were substantial variations from country to country first in chronological developments. There were also variations in beach conventions. One major variation was access to beaches. Once railroads developed, few Britons lived more than 2 hours from the coast. Belgium and France have North Sea beaches. France is noted for its Meditteranean beaches, but also has Atlantic and Channel beaches. Of course the Meditteranean beaches were substantiallt warmer than the Atlantic and North Sea beaches. Italy has Mediteranean beaches, but I have noted less discussion of them. Most Germans and Austrians lived at considerable distrances from a coast. This was even more so in the case of America. Of course beaches are not just located along sea coasts. Children in inland locations could still enloy lakes and rivers. Germany had both Baltic beaches and beautiful lakes. While there were differences from country to country as to enjoying the beach, as far as we can tell beach clothing was quite similar, until after World War II.
Australians today love the outdoors and the beach is one of the most popular destinations. And the country has some wonderful beaches. We are not sure just when this love of the beach began. Here we see some Australian children in the early 20th century (figure 1). Notice the "sun-safe" outfits. Australian and other beach goers soon adopted less protective beachwear.
Belgium has North Sea beaches.
The beach first became popular in England during the 18th century. Britain as an island has an extensive seacoast. The water temperature because of the northerly lattitudes are a bit nippy, although this is moderated by the Gulf Stream. English fascination with bathing gradually spread to the Continent. Visits to the beach became popular throughout Europe and America. There were substantial variations from country to country first in chronological developments. There were also variations in beach conventions. One major variation was access to beaches. Once railroads developed, few Britons lived more than 2 hours from the coast. Thus a broad spectrum of the English public had access to the seaside. This of course was much more limited in many other European countries. The English children here have come to the beach without swimsuits. Notice the boy wears a Norfolk suit with a Eton collar.
Beach resorts also began to become popular in France in the late 18th century. I have little information on developments in France. however, because of my inability to access French sources. There were many important seaside resports in the 19th century. Some images do provide insights into beachwear. Like England, fashions appear to our modern eye to have been very formal, hardly suitable for what we now consider to be beachwear. France has numerous fashionable beach resorts. France is noted for its Meditteranean beaches, but also has Atlantic and Channel beaches. Of course the Meditteranean beaches were substantiallt warmer than the Atlantic and North Sea beaches. Italy has Mediteranean beaches, but I have noted less discussion of them. One popular Atlanyc coast beach resort is Arachon
Most Germans and Austrians lived at considerable distrances from a coast. Until theRailroads appeared, few Germans had access to beaches located in the far north. Children in inland locations could still enloy lakes and rivers. With the railroads, Germans had access to the beach. Germany had a short North Sea coast (between the Netherlands and Denmark. There was a much longer Baltic coast (before World War II). Bost references I have noted describe the Baltic beaches, Here there was not only the Baltic coast, but German islands in the Baltic. Of all the major European countries, Germans had longer to travel to get to the beach, so it was generally a luxury for the well to do. Germany also has beautiful lakes which were more accessible to most Germans. Swiming in both locations require hardy sould. Here we are talking about rather cold water.
Greece is a peninsular country in southeastern Europe with thousands of idelic islands throughout the Aegean and Ionian seas. Very popular in Greece for both familes and group visits are beach resorts and spas. Greece is known for its beaches. This incluses beaches from the black sands of Santorini to the party resorts of Mykonos. Wecsee Loutraki (Λουτράκι), a beach-front resort on the Gulf of Corinth. We see Kavouri beach. Kavouri is a coastal region located near to Athens, about 20 km from the city center. Around the sandy coast are many nice coves with free access, others with sand and others with small pebbles. Kavouri consists an excellent choice for swimming and sunbathing with nice beach facilities and numerous cafes located right by the sea. The beach is great for beach games, like beach volleyball and other activities as you can see the children here are prepared to play. For most countries, beaches are for the most part distant attractions. Greece is, however, a peninsula set in the warm Agean/Ionian (Mediterrranean) waters. Thus there are virtually beaches located all along the coast, includiung some very close to the major cities like Athens. This inclues beaches with virtually no facilities, developed beaches as well as spa-like resorts. And there are also the many beautiful Agean/Ioanian islands with stunning white towns and deep blue seas. These of course except for the small local populations involved multi-day trips.
Surely Italy as a narrow peninsula must have more resorts than any other country, at least in porortion to population. We know that there were seaside vacation resorts even in ancient Rome, such as Pompei and Capri. Although I am not sure just what such communities were. I think it was more the wealthy building villas there rather than the common people vacationing. I am also not sure to what extent swimming and beach activities were involved. We know the Romans loved bathing, but we do not know know to what extent swimming was involved.
We do not know when beach resorts began to appear in modern Italy. We do see some beach scenes in the early 20th century. There appear to have been quite a number of popular beach resorts. One such resort was Rimini, today one of the best-known seaside resort on the eastern cost of Italy. We have only limited information on beachwear, but we do not see nearly as many images of people wearing heavy suits to to beach. Of course the climate must have been a factor as Italy is much warmer than northern Europe.
We do not know much about Japanese beach resorts and seaside history. Nor do we know much about beachwear, either swimwear or clothes worn at beach resorts. Styles appear to have been different than Wedtern styles, but we note some Western stles after World War I and a general shit to Western styles after World War II. We have no real information at this time, but we can begin to piece together some information from a few available images.
The Dutch have North Sea Beaches.
We note a Polish family at Ahlbeck, a beach resprt on the island of Uznam during 1916.
Portugal is a small country with a very long Atlantic coast and some beautiful beaches. There are beach resorts all along the Portuhuese coat. We are not sure when they became a tourist attraction. but we see tourists there, including foreign tourists, at the turn-of-the 20th century. This was mostly well-to-do people. Large numbersof middle-clastorists do not come until after World War II. British tourists were some of the girst to come to Portugal im numbers beginning in the 1960s. Most visitors to Portugal from an early point go to Algarve, and commonly they don't leave their resorts to explore the country. The Algarve means, 'the west' and is derived from arabic showing the coutry's medieval Muslim history. 'The west' means the west of the Iberuan peninsula. But the Algarve is the far southern region of Portugl, just west of Gibraltar. The region has as its administrative center in the city of Faro. Tourism and related activities are extensive and make up the bulk of the Algarve's summer economy. The Algarve is the most popular tourist destination in Portugal, and one of the most popular in beach resort areas in Europe. Some 10 million people visit the Algarve annually, more than half foreign tourists. There are beautiful beaches to the north, but the Algarve is the most popular area.
Scotland is a small country with an extensive coastline. And there are also nymerous offshore islands. No place in Scotland is more than an hour or two from the coast. There are beautiful wide beaches in Scotland as well as isolted rocky coves. Much of the coast is unspoiled. The beaches have dunes and golden, sands. While the beaches are beautiful, the water is rather cold, even for heardy beach goers. There are notably beautiful nature sites, untouched pine forests. Tghere are rugged cliffs covered with gannets to delight bird waters. Marshland attract migrating geese. While the beaches if one wants to swim have limited appeal to vacationers, Scotland's wildlife opportunities have considerable appeal. There are numerous beautiful beaches which have a very special charm. These are not the beaches crowded with warm water seeking tourists. Rather than hectic, the Scottish beaches are calming and a wonderful nature experince. Often there is not another beach goer in site, but you might see a seal or on a lucky day an otter. Many of Scotland's best beaches are hidden away in isolated, remote areas and thus require considerable effort if ones wants to see them. And of course there is always the chance of experiencing an Atlantic or North Sea gale. When the sun shines, however, the Scottish beaches are spectacular.
Americans ike Europeans began to take an interest in sea bathing in the 19th century. As far as we can tell this interest first became notable after the Civil War (1861-65) and was most notable in the big industrial cities of the northeast. Many important beach resports were developed, both along the two coasts and atinland sites aswell, escially lakes. The bathing costumes we note are rather voluminous affairs, looking in the case of men and boys rather like long underwear. They were commonly done in stripes. Black was a popular color for women and girls. Women might wear long stockings with their suits. This changed rdically fter World war I (1914-18), although many municipal authorities attempted to enforce modesty codes. Boys at men during the inter-war years commonly wore bathing suits with tops. A goof example is the Jantzen suits
A reader writes, "I recall this kind of bathing suit myself, which I and my brothers wore at country club swimming pools and also at beaches in Maine and Massachusetts."
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