10/27/2024
Victorian-Era Bathing Carriages, 1890s
During this time, women were required to remain fully dressed until they entered a bathing carriage to change into their swimsuits. Once inside, someone would push the carriage into the ocean, allowing the women to enter the water in privacy, without being seen in their swimsuits.
Irish playwright Walley Chamberlain Oulton described them as "four-wheeled carriages, covered with canvas, with an awning at one end of the same material, which is lowered to the surface of the water, so that the bather, descending a few steps, is concealed from public view, allowing the most refined woman to enjoy the benefits of the sea with the utmost modesty."
Bathing carriages were widely used in England until the late 1890s, when they were permanently stationed on beaches. However, by 1914, most of them had disappeared from the United Kingdom.
Credits: Abundancia y Prosperidad
