Many of us would likely like to while away our days in a beach hut, making pots of tea with an enamel kettle, and gazing at the ocean from our own little paradise. The truth is that – you likely won’t be able to afford one, and you’re not allowed to live in one either. Although beach huts started out as humble fishermen’s huts, today the going price is around £20,000 and that’s just one to visit now and then!
Over 100 years ago, it was popular to ‘take to the beach’ to cure diseases like TB, due to the beneficial negative ions (today a walk by the beach can do most people the world of good). Along with bathing in the salty water (something enjoyed since the mid 1800s). Often painted in pastel colours, today they are mostly found in popular seaside resorts (like Norfolk, Bournement and Brighton). They are wonderful to enjoy a day at the seaside, but still have the benefit of being inside, when it starts teeming down with rain!
Some beach huts are silly prices (one sold recently for £330,000). The Queen even had a beach hut near Sandringham (which apparently was the place the Queen Mother liked to take the Corgis).
Today there is a huge waiting list for beach huts. Mobile beach huts (which would be wheeled down in Victorian times to the sea so people could change into their costumes without losing dignity) are not so popular. But it seems sure as life gets more stressful and complicated, than the dream of owning a little pastel beach hut remains a dream for most of us, even if it is a distant one!
