Changes

Informally, people have been swimming and visiting beaches for generations. However, beaches were not considered a place a large number of tourists, and certainly not families, would go visit during the summer months or even other times of the year. The beach was sometimes isolated from communitiesand even seen as dangerous. During By the Medieval and early Modern Period, people would see the beach as possibly a nice place to look at but people would not swim since taking ones clothes to go for a swim would be seen as immodest, for both men and women. Even children taking their clothes off and changing to swimwear would not be commonas mostly unheard of. Perhaps some of the earliest records of beach-side use comes from the 18th century. Interestingly, it was not the beach but nearby spas that attracted people closer to the beach. In Scarborough, in Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, the town was known to have a natural acidic water spring that ran from the cliffs to the beach area. The spa, seen as providing health benefits mostly by wealthy individuals, led to the development of resorts and hotels in the town for people to take advantage of the natural spa. Instead of swimming in the ocean to feel refreshed, people wanted to change and dip in the spa waters. At this time already, modesty expectations made changing into swimwear somewhat complex. The first rolling bathing machines were introduced in 1735 as a way for people to change inside these areas into swimwear and then go for a swim in the spa waters by being rolled to the water (Figure 1). These box-like rooms could be rolled close to the beach so people would not have to be exposed too long in showing their swimwear, which even covered most of peoples' bodies. By the mid-18th century, wealthy Europeans began to see the beach as a place that offered exercise and enabled experiencing the outdoors, which they increasingly saw as beneficial for healthand nature began to be seen as less dangerous and more pleasurable. However, beach holidays did not exist outside of those for the very wealthy.<ref>For more on the early history of visiting beaches, see: Brodie, Allan, and Matthew Whitfield. 2014. <i>Blackpool’s Seaside Heritage</i>. Historic England</ref>

The beginnings of mass consumption of going to the beach can be traced to the reign of King George IV, who made Brighton in the 1820s a resort town, which it is still today, for Londoners wanting to escape urban life. Hotels and venues for lesiure leisure were beginning to be built at this time. The beach was now seen as part of the escape from the big city, but visiting the beach was still mainly an upper-class privilege. Landscape paintings by this time, and going into the early Victorian period in the 1840s, began to pain paint the beach as part of a picturesque landscape in enjoying nature's beauty. This helped attract people to beachesas beaches began to be seen for their beauty as a place to enjoy. However, most people would not swim and modesty rules of the day made bathing somewhat complex.<ref>For more on how the British developed the idea of visiting a beach for the masses, see: Jenkinson, Jo. 2015. <i>The Lure of the Beach: A History of Public Bathing in Brighton</i>. Brighton Historical Society (Vic.).</ref>