by Will Scott (Photographer), Edwin Heathcote (Introduction by)
A dazzling catalog of architecturally diverse British seaside shelters, left to ruin
A testament to the heyday of British summer holidays in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (and the country's notoriously fickle weather), seaside shelters provided a spot for British beachgoers to get out of the sun or the rain. Seaside towns, competing to attract visitors, installed these colorful structures on their beaches in a dizzying array of architectural styles, from Victorian to art deco to Bauhaus-inspired. The shelters started to fall into disrepair as low-cost air travel lured British holidaymakers away from the seaside; most of the shelters now stand deserted.
In Seaside Shelters, the London-based architectural photographer Will Scott celebrates the wide variety of shelters dotting the British coastline, documenting this disappearing vernacular architecture at iconic resorts and lesser-known coastal gems alike, including Blackpool, Great Yarmouth, the Isle of Wight, Clacton-on-Sea, Portsmouth, Aberystwyth, Swanage and Cromer.