Will Scott: Seaside Shelters

by Will Scott (photographer), Edwin Heathcote (Introduction)

A dazzling catalog of architecturally diverse British seaside shelters, left to ruin A testament to the heyday of British summer holidays in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (and the country's notoriously fickle weather), seaside shelters provided a spot for British beachgoers to get out of the sun or the rain. Seaside towns, competing to attract visitors, installed these colorful structures on their beaches in a dizzying array of architectural styles, from Victorian to art deco to Bauhaus-inspired. The shelters started to fall into disrepair as low-cost air travel lured British holidaymakers away from the seaside; most of the shelters now stand deserted. In Seaside Shelters , the London-based architectural photographer Will Scott celebrates the wide variety of shelters dotting the British coastline, documenting this disappearing vernacular architecture at iconic resorts and lesser-known coastal gems alike, including Blackpool, Great Yarmouth, the Isle of Wight, Clacton-on-Sea, Portsmouth, Aberystwyth, Swanage and Cromer.

116 pages, Hardcover

Published September 25, 2018

About the author

Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_...

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful record of mundane architecture at the seaside. An archivist's dream but lacked informed writing that could have enhanced the series as a whole.

A great showcase of stylised documentary.

[Gareth Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having ‘read’ a book of bus shelters of the former Soviet Union, I conceived the idea of taking photos of British seaside shelters only to find that Will Scott had beaten me to it. The photos are good, with plenty of context for the shots and there is a good, varied selection. However, it would have been nice to have a commentary on each shelter in addition to the evocative introduction. It’s a nice book of photos, but lacks an architectural bite.