Royal and heritage travel
How the British holidayed in 1926 - the year Queen Elizabeth II was born
The Duke and Duchess of York with their daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth II
RIVIERA CHIC
The South of France’s dazzling summer scene arrived in the 1920s. Although the wealthiest Brits, including Queen Victoria and her family, had long enjoyed winter breaks across the Channel, the switch to the hottest months of the year was led by Americans. Songwriter Cole Porter and F Scott Fitzgerald, whose novel The Great Gatsby had been published in 1925, were among the glamorous creatives who brought jazz, yachts, casinos and beach picnics to Cap d’Antibes and its shoreline. By 1926 the most fashionable Brits were beginning to join them - and setting the trend for sporting a post-holiday sun tan on the streets of Mayfair. (Previously porcelain-like complexions were de rigueur.) However, the Queen’s father, later George VI, judged the Riviera to be a rather racy summer destination, preferring Balmoral for his small family.
Seaside with Palm Trees (French Riviera, mid 1920s) by Janós Vaszary
OH, WE DID LIKE TO BE BESIDE THE SEASIDE
Watching enormous, freezing waves rise from the Irish Sea and crash over the South Prom’s newly built sea wall was just part of the fun at Blackpool. The Lancashire seaside resort was pulling in 8 million visitors a year by 1926 - more than three times its rivals such as Margate, Skegness and Scarborough. Numbers were swelled by improved working conditions in the industrial north that gave many people paid week-long holidays for the first time. Nowhere could beat mighty Blackpool for entertainment. You could climb the Eiffel-esque Blackpool Tower - the UK’s tallest building - then visit a fortune teller, watch fishing boats from the North Pier and ride the dodgems at the Pleasure Beach. At night there was dancing (the Charleston had taken London by storm a few months earlier), silent movies, variety shows and the circus. And while the British weather couldn’t be relied upon, Blackpool had its unique Illuminations - advertised as life-enhancing ‘artificial sunshine’!
Right: The cover of Blackpool’s official guide for 1926, © Blackpool Council Heritage Service
FRESH AIR, FITNESS AND HARD WORK
For most Brits, the idea of a ‘do nothing’ holiday was decades away - they liked to be active. In 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel. Swimming, already fashionable, sky-rocketed in popularity and open-air sea-water baths began to open up around the coast. Blackpool’s was vast and built in the style of a classical amphitheatre. Tennis and hiking were also enjoyed, and the Co-operative Holiday Association organised cultural and walking holidays in the countryside for working-class people. However, for many families living on precarious incomes, a week without a wage was an impossible notion. Huge numbers in the south and west of England got their countryside break by joining the hop picking harvest during the first three weeks of September. In the mid-1920s around 250,000 Londoners, often travelling as three generations of a family, camped in the fields of Kent to pick the aromatic, bitter flowers used to make beer. After 10-hour shifts, children would play football and cricket in the fields until dark, when they joined the adults for starlit sing-songs around the campfire.
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Gertrude Ederle, 1926
1920s hop pickers at Burgham Farm, Etchingham, loaned to Bygone Etchingham by Eileen Eastwood; Colin Boylett on Flickr