A beach hut (also known as a beach cabin, beach box or bathing box) is a small, usually wooden and often brightly coloured, box above the high tide mark on popular bathing beaches. They are generally used as a shelter from the sun or wind, changing into and out of swimming attire and for the safe storing of some personal belongings. Some beach huts incorporate simple facilities for preparing food and hot drinks by either bottled gas or occasionally mains electricity. Locations At many seaside resorts, beach huts are arranged in one or more ranks along the top of the beach. Depending upon the location, beach huts may be owned privately or may be owned by the local council or similar administrative body. On popular beaches, privately owned beach huts can command substantial prices due to their convenient location, out of all proportion to their size and amenity. A pre-war wooden beach chalet at West Bexington, Dorset sold at auction for £216,000 in 2006, and a beach hut on Mudeford Spit sold for £170,000 in 2012, where prices have risen above £270,000 by 2017. However these were exceptional as in both cases overnight stays were possible. Prices in 2009 for typical huts around the UK started from £6,000 in Walton on the Naze and typically up to £35,000., In January 2016 a beach hut was sold in Brighton, Victoria, Australia for a record $285,000. An April 2021 report provided an update on this category: "the average asking price for a beach hut in Britain has shot up from £25,578 to £36,034" in a single 12 months. Today there are believed to be around 20,000 beach huts in the U.K. Locations where beach huts can be seen include Lowestoft, Southwold, Walton-on-the-Naze, Frinton-on-Sea, Abersoch, Langland Bay, Rotherslade, Rustington, St Helens, Isle of Wight, Tankerton Slopes and Mersea Island. Locations in other countries include Wimereux, France, spectacular colorful picturesque in Cape Town, South Africa, Nesodden, Norway and Brighton and elsewhere around Port Phillip, Australia. Holhiashi are small Maldivian resting places usually found only in the Maldives. These small beach huts can be found near beaches or harbours. History The noted bathing boxes at Brighton in Australia are known to have existed as far back as 1862. The bathing boxes are thought to have been constructed and used largely as a response to the Victorian morality of the age, and are known to have