Seaside Postcards

The very first postcards did not have a picture. It wasn’t until 1894 that picture postcards produced by private publishers were accepted by the Post Office bearing an adhesive stamp. Picture postcards went on to depict a huge array of themes including the images of holiday destinations and the British seaside.

South Sands, Scarborough Postcard, Early 1900s, PH64S/36b

With the expansion of the Victorian rail network more and more people from all classes were able to reach the British coast. This only later increased with the Holiday Pay Act allowing people to take time off work without losing pay. For those individuals able to indulge in a day out or a few days away at the seaside, picture postcards made it possible to show friends and family at home what they had been up to.

Images

Donkeys

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British seaside postcards often depict quintessential images of our coast and holidays, with people in deckchairs, taking donkey rides and walking down the pier. The images on these cards not only show the receiver where the person is and what they might be doing but also transports them back to their own past holidays.

Piers

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It amuses me that you don’t see postcards of the British coast in bad weather, with families huddled under an umbrella, which we’ve all experienced at one time or another. Instead, they show the seaside basked in sunshine, not so realistic but definitely more enticing.

Deckchairs

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A trend of seaside postcard designs was saucy inuendo driven images. Produced by publishers like Bamforth & Co. and Donald McGill these images used the medium of caricature as a way of playing with body forms. They also portray questionable humour which to many today may seem unacceptable.

‘Censor or no Censor’ Postcard 1956, © Donald McGill, on loan from the Brown Family, E16361/05

Messages

Whereas the image can be slightly misleading the postcard message really sums up what the experience is like for the visitor. The below card from Weston-super-Mare asks the recipient ‘How would you like to be here, no offence but it is lovely on the sea front’. It was difficult for them not to gloat just a little when they were having such a lovely time.

Weston-super-Mare Postcard message, 1914, PH64W/40c

Holidays however are finite. Here Amy laments that she’ll return ‘Tuesday week’ and wishes it was ‘Tuesday 6 weeks’. The front of this postcard also classically mentions the weather ‘Having a lovely time. No rain’.

Broadstairs Postcard Message, 1903, PH57/33a, (item not in exhibition)

The below postcard message not only tells us what a great time they were having but even sets the scene as the sender writes ‘excuse pencil on the beach’.

Great Yarmouth Postcard Message, 1907, PH40/11a, (item not in exhibition)

Tom Jackson, creator of the Twitter account Postcard from the Past also takes snippets of these holiday postcard messages and posts them with the postcard image. Giving you a sneak peek into the life of the sender and keeping us guessing what the rest of the message might have said.

Bognor Regis postcard tweet from Postcard From The Past, 2020

Seaside postcards can make us long to go on holiday. These picture postcards document the beauty of the British coast and make us take that chance again on a UK trip.

If you’d like to see and learn more about postcards our new temporary exhibition ‘Wish You Were Here: 151 Years of the British Postcard’ is open until 2 January 2022.

– Georgina Tomlinson, Exhibition Curator

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