7 Things The Victorians Loved To See Beside The Sea
5. Guest Houses
Like all aspects of Victorian life, the accommodation you could expect to stay in while on holiday by the sea was dictated by where you stood in Victorian society. The upper classes could afford more spacious accommodation and expensive hotels and saw the seaside as a place to relax and escape from the crowded city centres. Guest houses and hotels pandered to the needs of these wealthy clients and provided accommodation that would appeal to the rich and keep in line with the high standards and morals that these people expected. The guest houses were eager to cater for the upper classes as they were likely to stay for longer and spend more money on food and were less likely to be affected by times of hard trade.
In stark contrast, accommodation for the working class was generally poor. It was common to have up to six people sharing one bed which provided little in the way of comfort or privacy. The food on offer at working class guest houses also left a lot to be desired which led to guests preferring to bring their own food and have their landlady cook it for them. The surge in people flooding to the sea at the end of the nineteenth century led to such a demand for accommodation that people even took to residing in the bathing machines due to the expense and overcrowding of hotels and inns.