If there’s one thing you can bet on in Britain, it’s that millions of people head to the country’s beaches when the weather becomes hot.
Pictures this week show crowded beaches in locations like Brighton, Bournemouth, and Newquay as temperatures in certain regions of the country climbed beyond 40C (104F).
Archival photographs, however, demonstrate that during hot weather in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, sunbathers also flocked to the seaside.
They demonstrate how the Britons of more than a century ago preferred to keep their clothes on during trips to the seaside in contrast to scenes from 2022 showing bikini-clad women and shorts-wearing men on beaches.
In one picture, people of all ages are gathered on the stony beach at Cromer, Norfolk, in 1921, when the summertime high temperature was 34C. (93.2F).
In another image from the same year, people in suits and jackets are seen in Eastbourne, East Sussex, with the town’s pier in the distance.
A third photograph from the 1911 heat wave, which saw highs of 36.7C (98F), shows a long line of sunbathers on the promenade in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
The fourth image, which was taken in 1890, just ten years after the construction of the town’s pier, depicts a crowded beach scene in Bournemouth, Dorset. The building can be seen extending into the water.
Intense drought lasted for weeks during the 1921 heatwave. Kent’s Margate took the most damage. Only 9.29 inches (236 mm) of rain fell throughout the entire year, a record for any location in the UK that is still in effect today.
Since there had been such a severe lack of precipitation, renowned fireworks company Brocks staged a show in Hampstead Heath, North London, in the hopes that it would bring some rain.
According to The Hampstead and Highgate Express, “hundreds of rockets and aerial bombs were fired in quick succession, and the clear blue sky was immediately dotted with tiny puffs of smoke.”
“But there was not a drop of rain.”
The balmy weather extended throughout the Autumn, with that October being the sunniest October on record.
In London, the highest temperature that month was 29C (84.2F) on October 6.
According to Jen Baldwin, a research specialist at Findmypast, “Brits had been boarding trains and swarming to the shore since the first Bank Holiday in 1871, and times of heatwaves were no different.”
Coastal towns like Eastbourne and Cromer were among the most well-liked vacation spots for the typical Briton, with piers and ice cream topping everyone’s wish list.
“And when it comes to yearning for beaches outside your doorstep in a heatwave, nothing has changed,” the statement continued. “We expect the exact same for this week’s weather!”
The new historical photos were released as Britain enjoyed its hottest day on record today, with temperatures above 40C. (104F).
At 12.50 p.m., the temperature at London Heathrow Airport reached an all-time high of 40.2C (104.4F), breaking the previous record for the UK set in July 2019 at Cambridge by 38.7C (101.7F).
38.5C (101.3F) in Kent in August 2003 is in third position, and 38.1C (100.6F) yesterday in Suffolk is in fourth.
In other locations today, the temperature reached 39C (102.2F) before 1pm in Cambridge and Northolt in West London and 38.8C (101.8F) in Kew Gardens in West London, all three of which surpassed the all-time UK high.
St James’s Park in London recorded 38.1C (100.6F), and Chertsey in Surrey recorded 37.7C (99.9F).
Forecasters said an absolute maximum of 43C (109F) is possible later; therefore, England’s highs today are on par with those of the hottest places in all of Europe.
Additionally, the UK is hotter than Barbados, Jamaica, and the Maldives.