Plan to demolish UK’s first public beach hut in Bournemouth prompts anger
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Local people criticise council over decision to raze hut built in 1909 to make way for work on nearby pier. Admittedly, it looks a little shabby. A wooden slat next to the front door and a window pane are missing and a lick of paint would definitely not go amiss.
But in the seaside town of Bournemouth there is disquiet at the prospect of the structure – beach hut number 2359 – being razed when structural work on the nearby pier begins. As its blue plaque outside attests, this is not any old wind-blasted, salt-stained building but the first municipal beach hut in the UK, dating back to 1909.
Hattie Miles, who gives walking tours of Bournemouth, said it should be saved. “It seems really odd to me. My view is it can’t cost a lot to just preserve a beach hut, for goodness sake. All they’ve got to do is pick it up and move it.”. The hut is a feature on Miles’s hidden secrets of Bournemouth walk. “When I tell people this is the first municipal beach hut, they are very interested. I’ve always felt that there’s a lack of appreciation of Bournemouth’s history. In the Victorian age everyone came here.”.
Hut 2359 stands in a row of two dozen on Bournemouth East Beach. They are small and basic and have usually been used by local families, a home from home on the golden sand. Though the huts are empty and locked up at the moment, one of their fans, Richard, was to be found this week sweeping windblown sand away from what used to be his and his mother’s beachfront retreat a few doors down from 2359.
