Coin Car Wash Scarborough | British Seaside Holiday

The thing that impressed us most whilst doing the research for this book was not how different holidays in the inter-war years were from today, but how similar. It came as a surprise to learn, for example, that the Bank Holiday traffic jam was nothing new. Rows upon rows of vintage cars (of course they were not vintage then, but very ordinary), bumper to bumper, going nowhere were a familiar sight on major routes into most of the big seaside towns from the 'thirties onwards. Sunbathing started in the 'twenties and that most important holiday fashion accessory, the pair of sunglasses, was common by the 'thirties.

There are differences of course. One man who found his Austin Seven boxed in by other parked cars along Bournemouth's Undercliff Drive, simply picked it up by the back bumper and pulled it out into the road! The main differences are in style, taste and in technology. We do not now like swimming outdoors in the cold - in the 'twenties it was recommended, even in Winter. No gentleman would go on holiday wearing a striped blazer and no lady would think beach pajamas and rubber bathing hats were the height of fashion. The aeroplane and the private car have replaced the train and the motor bus as the principal means of transport to the holiday destination. The main aim of the Summer holiday though, has not changed. As the Official Guide to Hastings and St Leonards put it in 1925:

"It is our pleasure when we take a holiday to give our moods and our tastes the rein. We feel free through our whole being even as we step from the train, and from the moment we leave the station we become truly ourselves and tastes which have had to be suppressed, and dreams which have been restricted to golden moments snatched from duty are released. We are resolved to do as we please, and all we ask of the town we are visiting is that it shall have something for each inclination."

The language is obviously period, and you could read 'plane for train, but the meaning is timeless. We go on holiday to escape our daily routine. To "give our moods and tastes the rein" to do what we please, not what we have to do.