Dr. Kathryn Ferry - Twentieth Century Seaside Architecture

About the show

Festival favourite Kathryn Ferry’s latest book is a nostalgic exploration of Britain’s distinctive and significant seafront buildings from the 1920s tothe new millennium.

British seaside resorts enjoyed phenomenal popularity for much of thetwentieth century.

Kathryn’s book examines how resort architecturearound the UK coast kept pace with changing fashions and the growingcompetition from foreign destinations.

She highlights the inherent playfulness of seaside architecture as itevolved from interwar classicism, through art deco and internationalmodernism, to Festival of Britain–inspired mid-century style, and laterto seafront tower blocks and the artificial beaches of 1970s leisure centres.Featuring a wide range of building types, ‘Twentieth Century SeasideArchitecture’ explores everything from beach huts and bandstands tolidos, piers, theatres, hotels and amusement arcades.