Seafront with bathing machines, Broadstairs, Kent.<br><p>Charles Dickens knew Broadstairs as ‘a quiet sea-beach…a blessed spot’. He wrote several of his best-known books there, including Bleak House (1853) and The Old Curiosity Shop (1841). The coming of the railway in 1863 made the town more accessible to day-trippers, and its popularity increased. Here, bathing machines can be seen clustered around the edge of the beach. Invented in the 1750s, these carts were wheeled into the sea, allowing bathers to change inside them and to bathe in privacy. They were widely used in the Victorian era.<br></p>
Seafront with bathing machines, Broadstairs, Kent.
<div class="fn value">
Francis Frith &amp; Co</div>
circa 1887 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1887-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902</div>
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