This day school explores the distinctive architectural heritage of Britain’s seaside resorts. Starting in the Georgian era, it will cover the evolving range of building types that provided first for health tourists, then for pleasure seekers.

Cast iron was the wonder material of the Victorian age, deployed along seafronts but also extending the promenade across the sea in the form of pleasure piers. Between the wars, iron gave way to concrete and glass as Art Deco and Modernism shaped the more streamlined aesthetic of 1930s lidos and holiday camps.

Though there was growing competition from abroad after World War II, seaside resorts continued to update their attractions and offer architectural novelty throughout the twentieth century.