The British seaside: Dud or dud?

was it martin parr who released those books of boring postcards too? (love all these photos btw)

I think so, try an image search for john hinde, for postcards

Yes it was...he did 3 of them (boring, boring USA, and boring Germn postcards)

He also compiled a book of Butlins postcards (from John Hinde as Proger mentions)which is excellent.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41N5gSUU%2BoL._SS500_.jpg

I prefer these to his actual photos tbh, which seem to border on 'LOL working class people', although tbf he does also do 'LOL rich people' and 'LOL people who want to be middle class'.

As for Martin Parr, I am not sure he has an agenda to mock working-class people having days out, it is more a "what are people like?" in glorious technicolor.

http://www.dimagemaker.net/ktml2/images/uploads/exhibit/parr/509.jpg?0.24452934250892122

http://www.hipshots.co.uk/images/parr3.jpg

Some of his stuff I like, some I am not sure about, but I know they are all better than any pics I take. But I always like the seagull one http://dbprng00ikc2j.cloudfront.net/work/image/104974/qg7swq/Seagulls.jpg as something you see in every UK seaside town and probably have done every day for 60 years or so.

yeah i don't necessarily see mockery so much as ultra-candid frozen moments. the old couple in the caff is very tender in a way.

I've actually met him and he says "yeah, i totally am taking the piss, I mean have you seen these people...disgusting savages imo"...no, he didn't say that he gave a very eloquent and thoughtful answer to a similar question (not from me, but from someone who who articulate proper) much along Noodles lines - and, it's a fair point that this is what it actually looks like sometimes. But I'm still a bit uneasy with a lot of them. Maybe I've seen so many similar pics that it seems too easy? I don't know, I'm rambling.

Anyway, I do admire his ability to get up close though. Ballsy without being obnoxious.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulrussell/303499383/

Woman "Don't look now love but I think that bloody Martin Parr is behind us"

Man "He's been at it all day, lets just get it over with"

Woman "I'll look northern and you say something parochial"

Man "right. Aye up lass, take in that bracing air, you'll sleep well tonight."

Woman "good, I think he's gone"

Man "Oh shit...look who is coming now. it's that damn Alan Bennett and he has his notebook out. I had better start reciting Alfred and the Lion.

Albert sorry. Used to hear it a lot in Filey.

There's a famous seaside place called Blackpool,
That's noted for fresh-air and fun,
And Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom
Went there with young Alberttheir son.

A grand little lad was their Albert
All dressed in his best; quite a swell
'E'd a stick with an 'orse's 'ead 'andle
The finest that Woolworth's could sell.

They didn't think much to the ocean
The waves, they was fiddlin' and small
There was no wrecks... nobody drownded
'Fact, nothing to laugh at, at all.

So, seeking for further amusement
They paid and went into the zoo
Where they'd lions and tigers and cam-els
And old ale and sandwiches too.

There were one great big lion called Wallace
His nose were all covered with scars
He lay in a som-no-lent posture
With the side of his face to the bars.

Now Albert had heard about lions
How they were ferocious and wild
And to see Wallace lying so peaceful
Well... it didn't seem right to the child.

So straight 'way the brave little feller
Not showing a morsel of fear
Took 'is stick with the'orse's 'ead 'andle
And pushed it in Wallace's ear!

You could see that the lion didn't like it
For giving a kind of a roll
He pulled Albert inside the cage with 'im
And swallowed the little lad... whole!

Then Pa, who had seen the occurrence
And didn't know what to do next
Said, "Mother! Yon lions 'et Albert"
And Mother said "Eeh, I am vexed!"

So Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom
Quite rightly, when all's said and done
Complained to the Animal Keeper
That the lion had eaten their son.

The keeper was quite nice about it
He said, "What a nasty mishap
Are you sure that it's your lad he's eaten?"
Pa said, "Am I sure? There's his cap!"

So the manager had to be sent for
He came and he said, "What's to do?"
Pa said, "Yon lion's 'eaten our Albert
And 'im in his Sunday clothes, too."

Then Mother said, "Right's right, young feller
I think it's a shame and a sin
For a lion to go and eat Albert
And after we've paid to come in!"

The manager wanted no trouble
He took out his purse right away
And said, "How much to settle the matter?"
And Pa said "What do you usually pay?"

But Mother had turned a bit awkward
When she thought where her Albert had gone
She said, "No! someone's got to be summonsed"
So that were decided upon.

Round they went to the Police Station
In front of a Magistrate chap
They told 'im what happened to Albert
And proved it by showing his cap.

The Magistrate gave his o-pinion
That no-one was really to blame
He said that he hoped the Ramsbottoms
Would have further sons to their name.

At that Mother got proper blazing
"And thank you, sir, kindly," said she
"What waste all our lives raising children
To feed ruddy lions? Not me!"

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRdHS9mztSkLovkSK99PirEf-Je9ePiBHciQSqBd-xpTCc3CnSJdg&t=1

More "coast" than "seaside" but has anyone been to the islands off Pembrokeshire?

went to Caldey Island as a wee child, memories are mixed up with other places but I know there was a monastery and you could walk there when the tide was out and i got a sweet patch for the back of my Wrangler jacket.

Ah, yes, have similar childhood memories. Except the patch.

was there a monkey sanctuary there or was that somewhere else?

my girls were fascinated that monks wore crocs. monkey sanctuary is on the mainland, near kilgetty iirc

yeah it's quite possible. we stayed in Tenby for a fortnight, think it was the summer of 76? i sunburned my legs so bad early on that i had a day when i couldn't walk on them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KQ6Wmbi5ig&feature=related

Get back to basics my friends.

My father in law point blank refuses to believe that that track is about anything other than how sticky rock gets. "We didn't sing about those kinds of things back then." I tried to play him "Shave 'em Dry" but he put his fingers in his ears and went 'la la la'.

I am not sure if Fornby wrote his stuff, but the song is surely less than innocent.

Wd've thought so, it seems in the vein of the old music hall tradition, like the Fella that Played the Trombone or Cock-a-doodle-doo, barely a comic song that didn't have that sort of innuendo.

I think he was a latter day arctic monkeys, but with better backing tunes. It was the george Fornby subterranean homesick blues lyrics stolen by Bob Dylan, that I remember best. The genius of Fornby and Morris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d9C5KHP5z0

Well the whole sketch is genius, but I think most of the ILX people out there are aware of it.

With my little stick of Blackpool Rock, along the promenade I stroll
In the ballroom I went dancing each night
No wonder every girl that danced with me, stuck to me tight...

Yes, Formby did write his own lyrics (mostly). It was actually banned by the BBC (or rather unplayed, I think they still persist with the myth that they didn't ban songs) because of its suggestive lyrics.

(actually Formby's lyric writing is not quite as straightforward as I though - http://www.georgeformby.org/biography/records-songs-films/)

there is no evidence that Formby even contributed, let alone actually wrote any of the songs synonymous with him and his ukulele, and plenty of evidence that he didn’t. He and Beryl would insist that his name be added to the songwriting credits, thereby earning him a nice bite of the royalty pie

Does anyone remember when they tried to revive that CITV show called Knightmare back one summer in the mid-'90s with a one-off Seaside special?

This... cannot be true...

Sadly I wish it were. Sorry for getting yr hopes up :-/

:(
Spellcasting J-E-L-L-Y-F-I-S-H lol tho

Seaside:

<img src=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4392398773_5929f8d62b.jpg>;
<img src=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4336756901_f551d5d1b7.jpg>; <img src=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4392417919_5ebd053482.jpg>;

Coast:

<img src=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/3107551633_e3633810f3.jpg>;
<img src=http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5309/5674559671_760a209976.jpg>;
<img src=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4393224122_f8d5213efa.jpg>;

And Burgh Island:

<img src=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2446/3804470624_6bb7c2d9dc.jpg>;
<img src=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2610/3804473968_762dd9db15.jpg>;

I grew up by the seaside in Dawlish (birthplace of Nicholas Nickleby). When Brunel built his railway it went from being coast to seaside (and "a watering hole for Victorian celebrities" according to Wikipedia). Amusement arcades, nuclear-bunker-esque ice cream shops, dilapidated beach huts, deckchairs, budget Butlins-esque holiday camps and caravan parks down the road at the Warren; I grew up with all that.

Once more, with feeling.

Seaside:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/4392398773_5929f8d62b.jpg;
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4336756901_f551d5d1b7.jpg; http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4392417919_5ebd053482.jpg;

Coast:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/3107551633_e3633810f3.jpg;
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5309/5674559671_760a209976.jpg;
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4393224122_f8d5213efa.jpg;

And Burgh Island:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2446/3804470624_6bb7c2d9dc.jpg;
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2610/3804473968_762dd9db15.jpg;

I grew up by the seaside in Dawlish (birthplace of Nicholas Nickleby). When Brunel built his railway it went from being coast to seaside (and "a watering hole for Victorian celebrities" according to Wikipedia). Amusement arcades, nuclear-bunker-esque ice cream shops, dilapidated beach huts, deckchairs, budget Butlins-esque holiday camps and caravan parks down the road at the Warren; I grew up with all that.

I think I pretty much love all that. There's a nice (or there was) pub on Burgh Island too.

has anyone read this?

http://www.alexandraharris.co.uk/modernism-on-sea

I loved her book on Romantic Modernism so I'm thinking of giving this a go, hoping it will be more Coast than Seaside?

I guess since she's focusing on architecture it'll be more Seaside but at least it'll be the beautiful bits.

Unless I've seriously missed something, I don't think she's focusing on architecture? She's been much more interested in Modernism as a whole movement, literary, visual arts, architecture is part of it but certainly not the main focus. At least of her other book.

only skimmed the blurbs tbh but the places that are named are quite firmly rooted in a form of Seaside culture. seems perverse to think of the wild stuff breaking into Modernism much, but i'm cool with perverse. Definitely looks worth a read.

Was last night's Coast worth catching when it's repeated?

Kimmeridge. Worth a visit?

?

No idea, sorry. Just bumping the thread for you, though.

Missed this. Yes it is. At least as far as that bit of coastline is involved, I don't know much about Kimmeridge per se - 'cept there's not much there. Maybe that's what you're after though? It's near Lulworth Cove which is lovely and there's a splendid and unusual church near Worth Matravers which is on a nice walk onto the headland.
http://people.bath.ac.uk/lismd/dorset/churches/st-aldhelm.html

And there's Corfe Castle nearby of course, from which you can get on the Swanage Railway (if you like that kind of thing, I do, but I am old and love trains).

it makes my Tryophobia act u pBIG TIME

For Llewelyn Powys the cliffs and downland of the Dorset coast sustained a poetic experience of the world in which 'to be alive is the prize above all prizes, to be out of the grave, the great exemption'.

Sounds ok.

I'm going for a very short, possibly quite glum, weekend to Margate soon. What to expect?

people telling you you can keep your costa brava

sunburned ppl

crushed hypodermics

donkeys

contentment

i have never visited any of the classic south east seaside resorts but i'm pretty comfortable with that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs4-lxrTK-8