The history of the beach hut goes back more than 250 years.
In the nineteenth century no trip to the seaside was complete without a dip in the sea from a bathing machine. These vehicles looked like beach huts on wheels and they could be hired for half hour periods. Patrons would get in at the top of the beach, change out of their normal clothes as a horse pulled them towards the seas, then step directly into the water from the front of the machine. For more than 150 years this was how most bathers experienced the sea.
The last of the bathing machines disappeared with the Second World War and when the beaches had been cleared of barbed wire at the end of hostilities, the holiday makers came back. The 1950s was the heyday of the beach hut but today there’s a clear resurgence. The most expensive example on sale now is a new-build in Devon. It has a £245,000 price tag. These days you can even get married in one. A hut near Bournemouth Pier serves as a chapel where marriages and civil partnerships are staged