Bathing Machines
To celebrate the beginning of the Summer holiday season, here is a selection of nostalgic seaside views from The Francis Frith Collection featuring that most iconic of images of Victorian beach scenes - the bathing machine. Ladies and gentlemen wishing to bathe in the sea would enter the machines from the landward side and horses would then haul the contraptions down into the water. Meanwhile, the bathers were donning their bathing apparel inside, and would emerge through the door and slip, dignity intact, into the shallows. Whilst they were bathing, the horses would be harnessed to the other end of the machines ready to pull them back to the beach for the return journey.
The Beach 1890, Bognor Regis
South Sands 1890, Tenby
Bathing Machines 1898, Southend-On-...
The Beach 1902, Brighton
Beach 1904, Felixstowe
The Sands 1906, Margate
From The Pier 1906, Southwold
The Sands 1918, Weymouth
Beach 1918, Sandown
