The Serious Business of Holidaymaking

Historic sites ranging from Blackpool Tower and Buckingham Palace to Stonehenge and a cottage in the Cotswolds all play a part in one of Britain’s most important industries, namely tourism. A new book published by Historic England about tourism in the British Isles describes some of the places that have welcomed visitors over the centuries and in the process were transformed by their presence.

The origins of tourism

Tourism in Britain can trace its origins back to the Middle Ages, when Britons travelled to pilgrimage sites such as Canterbury and Walsingham.

Travel was necessary to rule the country and to manage the estates of religious orders. A by-product of this was some inquisitive tourism, the most famous example being Gerald of Wales (about 1146–1223), who travelled on royal and church business in Wales and Ireland during the 1180s. His curiosity led him to visit churches and castles, but he also described the landscape, natural wonders and the habits and behaviours of the people he observed or was told about.

William Worcestre (about 1415 -1485) was an antiquarian with an interest in history, topography, geography and botany. However, during his travels around England he was principally concerned with architecture and was able to draw and describe complicated mouldings using detailed technical terms, suggesting a professional interest.

Georgian holidaymaking

The Reformation largely ended pilgrimage to religious sites and holy wells, but in place of spiritual healing came an interest in physical well-being through using mineral waters.

During the 16th century, Bath, Buxton, Knaresborough and Harrogate were the main destinations, but during the 17th century a growing interest in spa waters led to the development of new sources, including at Epsom, Tunbridge Wells and Scarborough.

By the 18th century Bath was being transformed into the spectacular Georgian city we enjoy today, with public and commercial buildings catering for visitors and high status residential developments to house those coming to take the waters. Smaller settlements such as Buxton, Cheltenham and Harrogate were also being embellished with grand terraces and crescents to accommodate visitors to their spas, assembly rooms and theatres.

The spa town served as a model for the initial development of seaside resorts.

By the early 18th century medical writers and scientists had recognised that the sea could act as Britain’s bath and soon ordinary, if usually wealthy people were heading to the coast to wash away their ills. Scarborough already had the infrastructure of leisure in place as it had welcomed tourists to its spa since the 17th century, but other coastal towns, including Brighton, Hastings, Margate and Weymouth, had more basic facilities serving their resident population. Nevertheless, these proved sufficient initially to attract growing numbers of wealthy people to the seaside, ostensibly due to its health benefits but also because it was becoming the fashionable thing to do.

Where aristocrats led, royalty followed; George III and his son, the Prince Regent, both became seasonal residents, at Weymouth and Brighton, respectively by the end of the 18th century.

The humble houses once endured by early sea bathers seeking lodgings were replaced in these and other resorts by grand terraces and crescents, as well as the first hotels. Visitors expected to be entertained as well as accommodated, and as in spa towns a range of increasingly large and opulent assembly rooms, theatres and circulating libraries were built, a testimony to the popularity of the seaside.

Transport and tourism

By the early 19th century a limited form of mass tourism was beginning to appear as a result of more affordable travel.

This was initially by travelling on steamers to towns reached by heading down the Thames such as Margate and Ramsgate, as well as ‘doon the watter’ from the fast-growing city of Glasgow to resorts in the Clyde Estuary.

With the coming of the railways, Britain’s seaside resorts came to be open eventually to almost everyone. Affordable rail travel, in combination with increasing free time and emerging paid leave, would stimulate both the growth of seaside resorts and access to sports, the early development of professional football particularly benefiting from the new circumstances.

Technological improvements in transport went alongside new ways of marketing and packaging tourism. The modern package holiday owed its existence to pioneering ideas employed by steamship operators, as well as most famously by Thomas Cook.

Where steamers and trains had opened up towns to tourists, the bicycle, the motor car, the charabanc and the bus, increased access to the countryside.

Towns faced new pressures to adapt to forms of transport that did not concentrate visitors near railway stations. Instead they spread tourists throughout a settlement, prompting suburban and seafront development towards the edges of existing towns.

The popularity of the car soon led to congestion in resorts and the notorious bank holiday traffic jams on roads heading to the coast.

 During the interwar years it also led to the provision of the first purpose-built parking facilities.

Discovering Britain

Improved transport and increasing amounts of leisure time encouraged growing numbers of tourists to discover their home country, informed by affordable, portable guidebooks.

Growing numbers of intrepid travellers who once admired the nation’s agricultural achievements, by the 18th century they increasingly went in search of romantic, wild landscapes and picturesque natural beauty. These ranged from the Lake District of England and the Highlands of Scotland to curiosities such as the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland and Fingal’s Cave off the Scottish coast. A growing number of travellers also went in search of ancient and modern, man-made sites, ranging from Stonehenge and Avebury to contemporary architectural gems, such as Blenheim Palace and Chatsworth House.

People who might be intrigued by castles and ruined abbeys could equally be found recording visits in their diaries to the latest country houses, industrial sites and even to military barracks and prisons, an early manifestation of ‘dark’ tourism reflecting an interest in how the nation was changing in a period of rapid development.

Initially these visits were on an ad hoc basis, the site being visited through negotiation with a prison governor, the gardener or the housekeeper. However, by the 19th century increasingly formal arrangements were being put in place for the growing number of visitors, and by the end of the century the National Trust had begun to collect sites to preserve them as well as to show them off. The Trust’s first purchase was a clifftop site in Wales in 1895, and in 1896 it bought its first house, Alfriston Clergy House in Sussex.

The seaside for everybody

Although many people roamed the countryside or travelled to visit places of interest and attractions in towns and cities, the vast majority of people’s holiday time was spent at seaside resorts.

By the early 20th century, seaside holidays began to come within the reach of almost everybody.

To cater for this demand, huge entertainment complexes and new forms of accommodation became necessary, particularly through the provision of holiday camps. Resorts exploited new technology and new materials to create buildings such as winter gardens, cinemas and rollercoasters.

Tourism today

Since the 1970s the number of people taking their main holidays at British seaside resorts has decreased. The reason most often cited is that holidaymakers deserted Britain and fled to the sunnier shores of the Mediterranean.

This is undoubtedly true, but other reasons include the growing complexity of people’s lives, leading to greater flexibility in how they spend their disposable income on a growing range of activities and leisure pursuits: People can now visit theme parks or heritage sites, enjoy shopping trips, or be pampered at spa hotels. They may also attend sporting events, go on a retreat or perhaps try a parachute jump.

Britain has something to offer for every taste. Now the problem is often how to cater for huge numbers of visitors without ruining the very thing they came to see.

About the author

Further information

Brodie, A 2019 Tourism and the changing face of Britain. Swindon: Historic England