21 Wits, by Karen: bathing

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Sepia Saturday # 97 : Saturday 22 October 2011

THIS IS A SEPIA SATURDAY POST

Welcome to,
The Ever Changing Life - Of Going To The Beach

My cousins, Gesine and Jorg at the beach in Denmark
sometime around the end of the 1950's

I like how they dressed for the beach!

But, going to the beach wasn't always this easy.......

There were the days it was hard to achieve a full and complete tan .........

How would you fancy wearing this swimwear from one of the early images of swimwear for coastal life in Georgian Britain in about 1813.

       Recently, I purchased the book, "Glorious Britain, Place of legends," and the subject of "bathing houses" from Brighton, England caught my attention.   After investigating bathing houses, I learned about how wonderful and important they were, besides required!

      So I'm skipping Alan's theme From Sepia Saturday this week (although the group of boys he pictured are covered as well as those found in my post)

Ladies Swimwear and the Bathing Houses they used!

   I'm excited sharing this marvel of bathing at the beach just for you.  Surely this is "old business" to many of you, especially those of you across the great blue pond. But it may be new for some of you here.

Let me present these......        photos below from The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington are here for all of us to enjoy!

At the beach....
   without a care in the world....

This is my most favorite photo from the collection of "bathing houses" at the Library of Congress on file from the Prints & Photographs Division - Washington.
Is the use of umbrellas always catching my attention? Blankenberghe, Belgium.

I wonder what that one idle man sitting all by himself was thinking?

You see back in the good old days women weren't to be seen in their swimwear by men, and they actually were driven out to the sea in these bath houses and lowered into the water.

One more from Blankenberghe, Belgium...

The beach and the sea....Blankenberghe, Belgium, also between 1890 Ca. and 199 ca. from the Library of Congress collection of Prints & Photographs Division Washington.

Honestly, the bath houses used up a lot of valuable beach....and views.....
In 1861 when Captain Kenny's Brighton Beach Baths opened, bathing during the open daylight hours was strictly prohibited, as was mixed men/women bathing together. They created separate sections on the beach which designated areas strictly for men and women to swim separately.