To see how far the butler model describes the evolution of seaside resorts, I am going to look at three case studies of typical English resorts and compare them to the model.
In 1700 Cromer was a popular sea-bathing health resort among the nobility and the upper classes. Some of the wealthy even brought or built property to use as summer homes. Then from 1800-1836 wealthy visitors arrived, some from as far away as London visited Cromer and the population rose from 676 to 1232. The number of lodging houses also dramatically increased and bay windows were added to properties by the sea offering “sea views.” This agrees with stage one in the butler model known as Exploration, small numbers of people have been attracted to Cromer for a cultural characteristic (sea-bathing) yet only a small number of tourist facilities exist. Then in 1846 Cromer entered stage two of the butler model, involvement, as local businessmen began to invest in sea defences to encourage tourism. From 1846 to 1887 Cromer was in the third stage of the butler model, development. In this period there was rapid development along with the construction of hotels and an extensive railway line. From 1901 Cromer entered the consolidation stage and the number of visitors levelled off although the wealthy were still attracted to the area and a pier with its own theatre and amusements was constructed. Although from the 1940’s Cromer entered a period of stagnation, which saw a decline in the area as a tourist destination due to the war and a very slow post war recovery. In the 1960’s many of the hotels were demolished and it wasn’t until the 1980’s that Cromer was rejuvenated with a period of new investment.
Ilfracombe is another typical English seaside resort, which was discovered in the 1700’s to early 1800’s and was visited by famous people such as Daniel Defoe and Lord Nelson. This marks the exploration stage in the butler model as only a few people visited Ilfracombe at this point. By 1837 Ilfracombe had entered the involvement stage, as locals were investing in the tourism industry and constructed hot and cold sea baths, then in 1845 a rail route from North Devon was created. From then until the late 1800’s Ilfracombe entered the development stage, Ilfracombe hotel was built (210 rooms) and in 1867 indoor sea baths were built. The town population grew greatly during this period due to in-migration and many boarding houses were opened. By the 1890’s Ilfracombe entered the consolidation stage, as the number of visitors levelled off, although it was still a thriving tourist area with cinema’s, concert halls, amusement arcades and 25,000 advertising pamphlets being produced. Then during the post-war period due to loss of the tourism industry in the war, Ilfracombe became stagnated. A much lower class of people began visiting and the important trains from London stopped and many of the shops and hotels on the high street closed down. But Ilfracombe was rejuvenated in 1979 with the construction of new sea defences and a multi-million pound harbour development scheme. The Victoria pavilion was demolished and replaced by a new theatre complex and finally in 1999 a marina complex was created.
Brighton has also experienced a similar trend as the development of a seaside bathing resort. In the early 1750’s, Dr. Richard Russell opened a practise at Brighton to advance his seawater treatments. He had such a reputation that people of wealth from all over England were attracted to Brighton. Brighton had an estimated population of 1,500 in around 1700 but the rise in popularity of sea bathing saw that figure rise to an estimated 3,500 in 1783 and over 8,000 in 1801 then over 25,000 in 1821, this was the exploration stage of Brighton. After 1815 there was significant investment and construction of exclusive housing in Brighton. As well as exclusive developments there were also cheaper boarding and lodging houses and local investment in facilities, this marked the involvement stage on the butler model. From 1823 onwards Brighton was developed as a tourist town, it had its own pier constructed and numerous extravagant hotels on the sea frontage. Its own police force was created in 1830 and from 1832 Brighton had two sitting members of parliament. The railway built in 1841 created the further development and consolidation of Brighton as a tourist resourt. It made the resort accessible to the population at large and as thousands of people visited the population dramatically increased. In the 1850’s the wealthy elite started to leave as Brighton was no longer “fashionable” and a much lower class of people were using the resort. This was the start of the stagnation period for Brighton although it never lost many of its services and facilities just its popularity with the wealthy elite.
Overall through these three case studies I believe I have shown that the Butler model is very good at representing the evolution of British seaside resorts. All of my case studies have shown the characteristics of the stages of exploration, involvement, development, and consolidation, although not all of them have shown the stagnation, decline and rejuvenation but some have.
