The noted
bathing boxes at
Brighton in Australia are known to have existed as far back as 1862. The bathing boxes are thought to have been constructed and used largely as a response to the
Victorian morality of the age, and are known to have existed not only in
Australia but also on the beaches of
England,
France and
Italy and Cape Town at around the same time. They had evolved from the wheeled
bathing machines used by Victorians to preserve their modesty.
George III gave royal approval to the new fashion when he took a medicinal bath at Weymouth to the musical accompaniment of 'God Save the King', while
Queen Victoria installed one at
Osborne House on the
Isle of Wight in the 1840s. Felixstowe in Suffolk is believed to have had beach huts from at least 1891. In the early 20th century, beach huts were regarded as "holiday homes for the toiling classes", but in the 1930s their image revived,
George V and
Queen Mary spent the day at a beach hut in
Sussex, and other owners have included the Spencer family and
Laurence Olivier. During
World War II all UK beaches were closed, the reopening in the late 1940s and 1950s led to resurgence of the British beach holiday and the heyday of the Beach Hut. While many beach huts were former fishermen's huts, boat-sheds or converted bathing machines, some of the earliest purpose built beach huts in the UK were erected at
Bournemouth, either side of Bournemouth Pier in 1909. Designed by F. P. Dolamore, Bournemouth's Borough Engineer, they were offered for hire for £12 10s per year. Before
World War I, 160 huts styled like bungalows were initially built. Today, Bournemouth features around 520 Council-owned and 1200 privately owned huts. Their style varies from traditional, wooden, shed-like constructions to ultra-modern concrete terrace huts such as the 1950s Overstrand beach huts at
Boscombe. These redesigned by Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway, founders of the
Red or Dead label, as Beach Pods for the
Surf Reef opened in Autumn 2009. ==Notable huts==