Batsford

Twentieth Century Seaside Architecture

Pools, Piers and Pleasure around Britain's Coast

Author:	Kathryn Ferry
Published:	2025
Format:	Hardback, 232 pages
Size:	196 × 233 × 26 mm

£20⁰⁰

Tax included

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From lidos to leisure centres: 100 years of coastal design

Kathryn Ferry traces the playful, evolving architecture of Britain’s seaside resorts – from elegant piers to mid-century modernist dreams.

A nostalgic exploration of Britain’s distinctive and architecturally significant seafront buildings from the 1920s to the new millennium.

British seaside resorts enjoyed phenomenal popularity for much of the twentieth century. Told chronologically, this book is the first look at how resort architecture around the UK coast kept pace with changing fashions and the increasing competition of foreign destinations.

Using vintage postcard images, Kathryn Ferry showcases the inherent playfulness of seaside architecture as it evolved from interwar classicism, through art deco and international modernism, to Festival of Britain-inspired mid-century style, and later to seafront tower blocks and the artificial beaches of 1970s leisure centres.

Featuring a wide range of building types, Twentieth Century Seaside Architecture explores everything from beach huts and bandstands to lidos, piers, theatres, hotels and amusement arcades.

As climate change and the soaring cost of living provoke changing attitudes to travel, Britain’s seaside has witnessed renewed popularity – making now the perfect time to champion our architectural legacy of domestic tourism. Offering a compelling reassessment, this book will appeal to fans of architecture and design who love to be beside the sea.