The Urban Character of the Early English Seaside Resort 1700-1847

The submitted publications and this commentary demonstrate a novel approach to a subject that has not been examined in sufficient detail. At the heart of this work is an attempt to understand the places that became seaside resorts. Seven articles and two books combine to discuss early resorts and how their creation relates to the evolution of tourism. The origins of the English seaside resort have been examined in my detailed studies of individual places; however, realising that many were initially ports, my research extended to examine modern-day ports with no apparent historic resort function (Brodie 2011; Brodie 2012b; Brodie 2019a). This revealed forgotten, or rarely recognised, histories of leisure at Liverpool, Portsmouth, Southampton, Plymouth and Swansea (Brodie 2012a; Brodie 2019a). Extensive work has also taken place on the medical background to the proliferation of sea bathing in the 18th century to understand how wider ideas about improving patient health, and the emerging science of chemistry led to growing numbers of people using spas and seaside resorts (Brodie 2015; Brodie 2019b, 27-47).