Hi de hi-life as Butlin’s gets a makeover
LIGHT and airy with wooden floors and funky furniture, they seem a world away from original Butlin’s chalets.
Sir Billy Butlin’s first camp in Skegness, Lincolnshire, crammed two beds, a wardrobe, drawers and a sink into 10ft- square carpeted rooms, described by brochures in 1936 as ‘comfy little nests’.
But yesterday, as 117 pastelcoloured chalets with up to four bedrooms and their own kitchens, were unveiled in Minehead, Somerset, Butlin’s said the £16million overhaul was inspired by its heritage.
After consulting users of parenting website Mumsnet, designers included echoes of days gone by.
The 1,000 surveyed parents expressed a desire to ‘unplug’ and spend time together as a family, so board games have replaced computer games and televisions in children’s rooms. Each chalet includes arts and crafts materials, after nearly six out of ten mothers said they worried about bad weather.
Mumsnet founder Carrie Longton said: ‘ Families are becoming increasingly timepoor so it is so important to make the most of the time we get to spend together.’
Outdoor areas have been designed for youngsters to play together, as nearly 90 per cent of mothers wanted their children to make friends on holiday. The timber chalets, in 8.8 acres of landscaped gardens, were inspired by Sir Billy Butlin’s design – basic but homely, painted in pastel colours.
But while camps of decades gone by had only 60 bathrooms shared by 600 chalets, the latest versions all have their own.
Butlin’s Dermot King said: ‘We’ve re-imagined the chalet first introduced by Billy Butlin in 1936 and now reinvented for modern families.’
The chalets are seen as a bid to increase competition with rival firm Center Parcs.