It's August 1900, and these two young Victorian ladies stop to pose for an opportunist beach photographer before heading to the bracing sea off Worthing, West Sussex.
It's August 1900, and these two young Victorian ladies stop to pose for an opportunist beach photographer before heading to the bracing sea off Worthing, West Sussex. These were the last days of the Victorian era, the bathing machines are now parked further up the beach, and mostly used as changing rooms. However, just a few years earlier, and these canvas covered contraptions would have trundled up, and down the beach protecting the modesty of every Victorian bather. This is a recently restored, and colourised image from a south coast collector, and historian that neatly captures that transitional period. The bathing machine was a device, popular from the 18th century until the early 20th century, to allow people to change out of their usual clothes, change into swimwear, and wade in the ocean at beaches. Bathing machines were roofed and walled wooden carts rolled into the sea. Some had solid wooden walls, others canvas walls over a wooden frame, and commonly walls at the sides...