Have we got nudes for you
IT was not exactly what the TV crews, newspaper reporters and dozens of onlookers had in mind as they waited on Brighton seafront for the opening of Britain’s first nudist beach.
As the countdown began to the new dawn of UK naturism, heads strained and cameras got into position to see who would make history by baring all.
At 7.30am on the cold and wet morning of April 2, 1980, Arthur Albrow, 61, took off his long johns and trudged naked across the shingly beach, letting out a gasp as he entered the icy sea.
The moment was underwhelming but a victorious end to the long fight for the right to be naked in public.
Today, seven million people visit the UK’s dozens of public nudist sites.
But when councillors voted to allow the first nudist beach, 45 years ago, the decision was met with controversy.
The council vote was passed in 1979, thanks to Tory councillor Eileen Jakes, 47, who handed around photographs of herself bathing topless in Ibiza.
The grandmother said: “I came into the world with nothing on and I will go out with nothing on. Why should I be ashamed of nudity?”
She responded to a call by the Central Council for British Naturism, which had petitioned 140 local authorities for a nudist beach.
As landlady of a beachfront pub, she argued having a beach in Britain for nude bathers, rather than them travelling to Spain, would boost local tourism.
Tory councillor John Blackman opposed it while pensioners staged protests, claiming the 200-yard stretch, near Brighton’s pier, would “attract perverts and voyeurs”.
But Ms Jakes said: “Brighton is totally out of touch. It’s time Brighton took the lead and gave their facility to these people, because we’re here to make money.”
Mr Blackman warned nude bathing was a degenerate slope, lambasting the “flagrant exhibition of mammary glands” just yards from the pier.
He said: “I personally have got no objection to people showing their
breasts and bosoms and general genitalia to one another. But, for heaven’s sake, they should go somewhere more private.” The naked bathers made international news, even a French TV crew turned up. But locals in the suburb of Kemptown objected to nudists on the beach below. Others complained the 200-yard stretch was too close to a playground, while women from a church regularly turned up with banners. Resident Brett Hoskins said: “It was disappointing to find there were no naked young lovelies there, but only old men, naked except for shoes and socks.” John Goddard, an ex-driver of the Volk’s Railway that runs along the seafront, recalled old ladies wanting him to point nudists out when they passed. A pebble mound was later built to protect nudists and passersby. There have been recent complaints the beach is mostly used by men. But local Bella Kirkus and councillors are looking at ways to get women back, with the beach “a jewel in our crown rather than a dirty corner”.
She said: “The nudist beach is such a unique place.” Hopefully, it will remain as a fitting tribute to Ms Jakes, who died in 2008. She was snapped nude on the beach in 1979 as part of her campaign work and in 2004, aged 72.
Her stepdaughter Lisa Jakes, 58, was 14 when the nudist beach opened.
Lisa, whose father Ken is now 83, says: “She was immensely proud of what she achieved. It wasn’t the done thing for a Conservative, or for Brighton at that time.
“But she was flamboyant and outrageous. She loved getting her kit off.”
She believes Ms Jakes, who died a multi-millionaire, pushed for the nudist beach so she could use it herself.
Lisa says: “She was a naturist, she embraced the human body and loved skimpy bikinis. She wanted to show it off.”
She was flamboyant, outrageous and wanted to show her body off
LISA JAKES ON HER STEPMOTHER EILEEN