Bathing in the river Ganges at Benares
D. Oliver, January 1925
This striking photograph from 1925 shows pilgrims bathing in the Ganges at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. They access the river by descending its famous ghats, long flights of stone steps down to the water’s edge. The photograph comes from a large collection of loose prints depicting India and Pakistan in the 1920s and early 1930s, all taken by a Mrs D. Oliver
(or Olivere) of whom little more is known than her name. Like Katherine Routledge, often listed as Mrs Scoresby Routledge, or Wilhelmina Elizabeth Ness, the first woman on the Society’s Council, who is still better known as Mrs Patrick Ness, Mrs Oliver very likely appears under her husband’s full name here. In keeping with common practice at the time, this makes her even harder to track down in the archives. She may be the Adelaide Oliver who became a Fellow in 1913, but the
scant details available make reconstructing a biography very difficult.
There are many such traces of half-forgotten women travellers in the Society’s Collections, many of whom donated photograph collections, letters or their own published works to the Society during this period. These women often travelled alongside husbands who were serving as army officers or colonial officials, and it was common practice for them to document their travels through photographs or private diaries and letters. These were popular with the public ‘back home’ who were hungry for a taste of life out in the empire. The Society’s library has many such published travel narratives, through which these women serve as informal agents of empire.
While the author of this image may be hard to track down, it is even less possible to give voice again to the subjects in her photograph, to the many individuals who appear here only as a ‘native crowd’. However, while the photograph and its accompanying caption are framed by Mrs Oliver’s colonial perspectives, these images can be reinterpreted today by those in Varanasi and others, including diaspora community groups, shedding new light on historic Varanasi as it appears here.
Stretching out to sea for 1.3 miles, Southend Pier is the longest in the world. Walking to the end and back is almost the same distance as climbing the Matterhorn. On a hot day it can seem as challenging. Most visitors let the pier train take the strain, before cooling off with an ice cream, or perhaps sending a postcard from the pier’s own letterbox. When the train is running...
Completed in 1890, Southend
Pier is an icon of the Victorian
British seaside. Sir John Betjeman summarised its physical and cultural immensity: ‘The Pier is Southend, Southend is the Pier.’ Its famous length grew from a greater numbers game. ‘Seaside resorts were built on mass tourism. They make money by attracting as many visitors as possible,’ says Dr Anya Chapman, senior lecturer in tourism management at Bournemouth University.
At the start of the Victorian leisure boom, most visitors arrived at the coast by sea. ‘Piers were the transport hubs of their day,’ Chapman explains, ‘before the railways, piers brought the tourists.’ Southend had a disadvantage. At low tide, the sea retreats by a mile, while at high tide the water level rarely tops six metres. This tidal range meant large ships, including tourist steamers, couldn’t dock at Southend. Faced with losing valuable revenue, the solution was a record-breaking pier.
As rail travel increased, seaside piers evolved into leisure attractions. Ship stages became show stages. By the 1940s around four million visitors trod the boards each year at Southend. Numbers fell with the rise of European package holidays. Britain’s piers faced being washed away by the tide of changing tastes. In 1980 Southend Pier closed. Campaigners saved it from the threat of demolition and it has since been restored.
Today, the pier is owned by the local council. Last year they allocated £16 million to invest in the structure. Piers are expensive to maintain. Wood rots, metal rusts and insurance costs are huge. Besides the elements, piers are constantly exposed to storms, fires and boat strikes. And this summer, they face another threat.
Covid-19 saw piers closed despite glorious weather, including over
Easter and the May bank holidays.
‘The peak summer season is usually 12 weeks,’ says Chapman. ‘Lockdown and restrictions since have effectively cut that to just two and a half because most piers are now operating at about 40 per cent capacity’. Southend Pier reopened to visitors on 6 July. A socially distanced train service resumed at the end of the month. ‘These are difficult times for all piers. A lot of them are going to struggle,’ Chapman says. Does the pandemic threaten the end of the British seaside pier? Some are already adapting. Chapman cites Hastings Pier: ‘Critics called it “the Plank” because there was nothing on it. But its open spaces have become an asset, especially for safe outdoor dining.’ Before Covid-19, piers were already diversifying to broaden their appeal. Attractions on offer now range from aquariums to zipwires. And these seaside structures still provide a timeless pleasure. ‘The lure of the sea has been with us for centuries and piers offer a simple thrill, of being able to walk on water.’ Of the hundred or so Victorian piers, 61 survive with 56 open to the public. Hopefully pleasure seekers will enjoy them for many more summers to come
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