"Oh I do like to be beside the seaside. Oh I do like to be beside the sea. I do like to stroll along the prom, prom, prom, where the brass bands play tiddly-om-pom-pom," so goes the old musical hall song.
The song was a sentiment mirrored by practically everyone in Britain, where a fortnight's summer holiday by the sea was an essential part of life ever since a worthy physician in Victorian times established that bathing in the sea's water is beneficial to the health. The Victorians took up his prescription with great enthusiasm and it flourished.
As Britain is an island with a continuing coastline, there are literally dozens of seaside resorts, from Land's End at the tip of Cornwall to John O'Groats on the most northerly tip of Scotland, and all those in between, within easy reach of the major towns and cities. London has its south end on the sea at the Thames estuary and Brighton, made famous by the Prince Regent, later George IV, when he went there to take the waters. Brighton was also famous for its pier.
Not long after the Victorians started the fashion for seaside holidays, businessmen in the developing resorts set about providing pastimes for their amusement. The pleasure pier was the most successful innovation. The novelty of strolling safely over the sea, without the dangers or discomforts of sailing on it, proved an irresistible attraction for visitors.
After more than a century of continuous assault by winds and waves, nearly 100, piers still thrust out over the sea for distances ranging from a few hundred feet to more than a mile. With their decks supporting exotic buildings of all shapes and sizes, they are such a prominent part of the British seaside scene that one could hardly imagine any popular resort without one - or, in some cases, as many as three.
Most of the pleasure piers were built during the second half of the 19th century. Blackpool, in the Northern part of England on the Lancashire coast, had its very famous pier, which, when it opened on Whit-Monday 1863, had around 30,000 people in attendance. Blackpool has since flourished as a seaside resort and become the playground for holiday makers from the northern industrial towns and cities who come not only for their two weeks' holiday, but also on day trips to see the world-famous illuminations, fireworks, etc., and join in the fair-like fun and excitement.
Southend Pier, the world's longest, extends for more than a mile and a quarter over the seaward end of the Thames estuary. An electric railway runs almost the entire distance to the breezy pierhead, once a splendid grandstand for viewing the shipping passing to and from the port of London. The pier was, and still is, a haven of sheer delights, offering everything from peep shows, revealing what the butler saw, to gypsy fortune-tellers, roller coaster, and dodge 'em cars, souvenir shops containing mementos (including the proverbial saucy postcards, sticks of peppermint, rock candy with the name of the resort printed through it), to concert parties, band performances (tiddly-om-pom-pom), to elegant ballroom dancing in the afternoons.
The early concert parties on the piers were of particular interest where many of Britain's famous music hall stars of the future got their start - like Stanley Holloway of "My Fair Lady" fame. A concert party was a summer touring group of singers and monologists who would play a week at each of the famous summer resorts (Brighton, Folkestone, and the like). Usually each group would identify itself with a catchy name and a costume to match. There were the Vagabonds and the Tatlers and the Co-Optimists, the latter a group to which Stanley Holloway belonged for nearly 10 years.
There were many concert party groups and consequently a great deal of new material was constantly in demand. Thus a great many songs and recitations were produced especially for concert-party performers, like Stanley Holloway's delightful Albert and the Lion and the stories of Sam Small and The King Who Wanted Jam for Tea, all presented in a Lancashire accent. (All of which you could have heard on the British Hour).
But, to get back to the seaside - I must admit, I'm beginning to sound like a travelogue, or at least a representative of the British Touring Authority, but I assure you I'm not in the travel business! I'm just indulging in the nostalgia of going to the seaside which was always a great treat when I was a child, armed with buckets and spades, and waiting for that moment after driving over the hill and seeing nothing on the horizon, realizing at last we were at the seaside, with the wonderful tangy, salty smell of the sea, the thought of pink candyfloss and ice cream cones and it was hoped, rows of striped deck chairs and the joy of joys, a Punch and Judy show on the beach.
Later on, my seaside trips were confined to the west country - which was my stomping ground - with more stately homes, picture postcard villages, cathedrals and ancient churches, historic cities, resorts and beauty spots than anywhere else in England, plus the rugged grandeur of Exmoor and Dartmoor National Parks and hundreds of miles of superb and varied coastline. The west country encompasses such resorts as Weston-Super-Mare, Torbay and Torquay, and the resorts of Devon and Cornwall. Now I really do sound like a travelogue! So I will end with these famous words: As the sun sinks slowly in the west, we will return to our fair city of Seattle where you can go to Golden Gardens and roast marshmallows and have a clam bake.
TTFN until next time.
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