BESIDE THE SEASIDE

Britain didn’t use to have hotels on its coastline. It had quayside taverns where sailors and ferrymen caroused, but respectable people pretty much kept their distance from the shore until the late 18th century when sea-bathing became fashionable.

The Old Ship Hotel in Brighton claims to be the first coastal hotel in Britain, but it wasn’t built overlooking the sea at all. The first mention of it, in 1559, describes an inn more than 100 yards from the shore down Ship Street.

Brighton’s beach in those days was full of hauled-up boats and fishermen’s makeshift cottages. But in 1703 a huge storm washed away the shoreline, leaving the side of the Old