Beach huts

When I was about 5 years old my parents booked a caravan holiday in Mudeford. I don't remember a great deal about it but I do remember we rented a beach hut for the duration.

The reason I remember the beach hut so well is because I found it so magical. This little "house" on the sand was the stuff of pure fantasy for a child and I hoped we would live there permanently! The few days of rain we had only enhanced the excitement with the sound of the rain on the roof and the doors ajar to let in the sea breeze and yet feeling safe and snuggled in this little "fairy house".

I think the floor was wooden boards but covered in sand and I remember my dad boiling a kettle on a gas ring to make tea. He was of course dressed in his suit but without a tie. This would have been the very early 1960's and men always wore suits to the beach back then. My mum made sandwiches daily in the caravan which we then ate in the beach hut.

I remember pleading to stay the night in the hut and I used to imagine how wonderful that would be.

I hope you aren't housebound for too long HelterSkelter and that my tale of beach huts has cheered you up.

I never really understood the attraction. Maybe because I never went on a family holiday between the ages of five and fifteen.

Even now although many of them look lovely with the paintjobs I can't believe people pay that many for what is basically a rain shelter.

Beach tents seem much more practical these days.

A beach hut was my absolute dream as a child. It is fascinating that they hold such charm.

How strange you mention beach huts as yesterday I was at Lytham St Annes with dd and gs, we took our pics sat outside the beach huts there, although I think they are made of plastic now and some how don't look as quaint as the old wooden ones. ( I think they charge around £100 a day to rent one)!

But going back to days gone by my mum would rent one at I think at Fleetwood and Cleveleys on the Fylde coast.

There would be a little one ring hob and kettle, my mum would take tea bags and sugar/milk and butties and we would spend the day there away from the boarding house (as in those days you had to leave the boarding house until it was tea time) no idea why but that's how it worked.

So if wet and windy you really had no where to go hence you could go and spend the time in the beach hut.

I remember staying at Walton on the Naze in the 1950s, when I was about five. We rented a beach hut and it was like a superior Wendy house in that it had electric lights and you could boil a kettle and listen to the radio.

The floor was always rather sandy and damp from the dripping swimming costumes that were supposedly drying but remained damp throughout our stay. The hut smelled slightly of seaweed all the time.

My young aunt came with us and wore the first bikini I ever saw. I had a woollen costume that became very heavy when it got wet in the sea.

I remember listening to Dick Barton and Journey into Space on the radio.

We found lots of seaweed and jellyfish washed up on the beach which rather put me off making sand castles.

Sorry, rather random memories but I hope they help kindle happy memories.

I absolutely love those design competitions where contestants renovate beach huts.. Here in Brighton people decorate their beach huts in Hove and open them to the Public for an Advent Event at Christmas ... magical.. We only did caravans and tents for holidays as children but I've always liked living for a while in small spaces..

My brother had a school friend who spent the summer holidays at their Mudeford hut and often invited him to join them. Those huts now sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds!

Indigo never had a beach hut at walton on the Naze, but lots of lovely days out there as a child.

Sitting on the cliff top, Kraft cheese slices in a salad on plastic plates and Heinz salad cream.
Dad would take the primus stove smelling of meths and we would sit on an old tarpaulin.

We had a motorbike and sidecar and travel up from Barking where we lived.

Sorry Helter Skelter no beach huts, not even for a day, but I hope it has given you a happy thought of carefree days in the early 60s.

Hope you feel better soon.

My maternal grandparents moved to the Sussex coast and had friends who would lend them their beach hut when we came down to stay with them. Aged about 5ish I was in seventh heaven, I regarded it as mine and I spent hours playing in it. Grandparents sat just outside drinking tea.

I still love beach huts especially those in varying pastel shades, they're much coveted from what I've read.

keepingquiet

I never really understood the attraction. Maybe because I never went on a family holiday between the ages of five and fifteen.

Even now although many of them look lovely with the paintjobs I can't believe people pay that many for what is basically a rain shelter.

Beach tents seem much more practical these days.

My goodness, a beach hut was far more than a rain shelter😆

It was a private changing room, a place to eat meals that weren't covered with sand, a place for playing card games and board games when the tide was up and you couldn't go on the beach or just nice for lazing around outside in the sunshine.

We had a few holidays in the late 50s, early 60s in a rented beach hut at Walton. It was a day hut only, so we travelled there by train every day.

It was near the top of the cliff, so in addition to all its advantages it kept us children very fit as we went up and down the long flight of steps to get to the beach, the pier and the toilets...

It was quite basic, as I recall, a banquette type seat, a table and a chair or two. It had a double calor gas ring, so we could boil a kettle and heat up soup at the same time.

It was our job to fill the water container each day from the tap halfway down the steps to the beach. Another 'keep the children fit' job 😂

I don't think a beach tent has anywhere near the charm and usefulness of a beach hut...

Thank you. Lots of nice memories. I think it must be the small space that appeals to me. Certainly the swimming costumes stayed damp for the whole holiday! And making a cup of tea was almost a ceremony together with the very distinctive smell of the gass ring and matches.
The huts at Mudeford are wonderful...with amazing prices. But I think the great advantage there is you can stay
overnight.

I wish we had rented one when our children were small, but they often holidayed with my parents who had a camper van so they enjoyed small spaces and a home for everything in that. I have holidayed on a narrow boat and like the small spaces there with lockers and small cupboards. It must be the Wendy house influence from infants school.

I would still love a beach hut, even at my age. But they are amazingly expensive, unfortunately. How great to sit there watching people having fun, and being able to have a cup of tea etc. in the dry if it rains.
When I win the lottery....

Yes I agree henetha. Being able to be cosy in the dry with the doors open looking at a wide beach and the sèa is my idea of heaven. Or shade from the hot sun once you have had a swim and dried off.

My dear friend has a fabulous beach hut in Frinton. She’s done it up over the years, it seats 4 very comfortably, she’s erected a round shower curtain hanging from the ceiling as a changing room, and has a wonderful little kitchen area. I’ve spent many a summer’s day there over the years and it’s such a happy place!

I’ve known this lady since we were 11, and remember her granny’s beach hut, on Shoeburyness beach, many happy memories, including one very naughty night when we were mid teens when we slept overnight there, each telling our parents we were staying with each other for the night, we sneaked our two boyfriends with us, set up those awful “sunbeds” and bedded in! We were awoken in the night by the sea underneath, it was absolutely freezing, slightly damp and very very dark!

We visit Mudeford quite often, love it there, yes my God what those beach huts go for now Unbelievable!

I have had a hankering for a Beach Hut since childhood, many happy memories.

One has come up for sale near one of our AC (Thorpe Bay, Essex) it is on the market for £120,000!!

Cannot justify that amount, especially as it takes less than five minutes to walk to our AC’s home from the beach 😡

I will just have to rent one. One week in the summer. I think Bournemouth council still rent theirs out. I must google.

My in laws moved to Oulton Broad and for a few years we rented a beach hut for a week at Lowestoft. We took a camping stove and pans, so could make drinks or a sausage sandwich! Our children made friends with another two in the same situation and we were in nearby huts for a couple of years.
Happy Days!

I absolutely love those design competitions where contestants renovate beach huts

Yes there was a series of Interior Design Masters where they did beach huts and it must have been quite a challenge. We never hired one as we always went in a caravan for our family holidays in the 1950s. However I have always been intrigued by those cute little buildings.

I’ve always been so jealous of people with beach huts. As a child my dream was to live in one!

We discussed buying one a while back but they are sooo expensive!

We rented one last week. It was old, built in the 50 s nearly as old as me, but it had charm, did the job and had all we needed. £90 per day. Expensive treat but hope the gc will remember the magic of having a mini house with a view of the sea and the sand to play in.

pascal30

I absolutely love those design competitions where contestants renovate beach huts.. Here in Brighton people decorate their beach huts in Hove and open them to the Public for an Advent Event at Christmas ... magical.. We only did caravans and tents for holidays as children but I've always liked living for a while in small spaces..

On BBC iplayer Interior Design Masters Series 2 Episode 5 is about beach huts in Essex. Also feature about Beach Huts in Walton on the Naze from 2021.

When I moved to Hove in the late 1970s, I could have bought a beach hut for about £800 but I couldn't afford it.

A friend bought a beach hut near Whitstable about 20 years ago for £300. What a bargain, even if she was on the second row.

I have a lovely wooden beach hut right now I share it with my daughter it’s rented and we waited 13 years on the waiting list for it I love it we can sit outside it and leave all our stuff in there Chairs, table, cups, windbreaks any beach toys kites surfboards etc Towels sea shoes (to stop the weaver fish getting you) there’s a bench a table and hooks on the walls
Wow £90 a day is a lot Silverlining We pay £750 for 12 months I think weekly they are about £80