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During the 1850s and 60s, as the railway network spread across the land, seaside resorts became accessible to an entirely new market. Cheap fares and readily available transport put seaside holidays within the reach of most of the working class. In fact, some resorts such as Margate and Southend, found that they suffered from a distinct ‘lowering of the tone’. Day excursions, too, became ever more popular.

By this time, most of the salaried middle class had at least two weeks’ paid holiday in the summer and, by the 1860s, even the humblest bank clerks were given one week’s paid holiday after just one year’s service. Even the lowest paid benefited from the Bank Holiday Act passed in 1871. In the North, the textile mills in particular were amongst the first to arrange a complete shutdown, for example, at Whitsun or Wakes Week, finding this infinitely preferable to workers taking their own random holidays. It was at this time that the northern resorts, particularly Blackpool, gained so much in prominence.

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