ImagesBrighton pictures of the week 1-3-2004

IMAGESBRIGHTON photography by david gray
	B U T L I N S I N B O G N O R R E G I S
	P I C T U R E S O F T H E W E E K 1 - 3 - 2 0 0 4

Billy Butlin's holiday camp empire began near Skegness in 1936. The site had been a turnip field and the opening ceremony on that pre-war Easter Sunday starred Amy Johnson, the aviator. The very first holiday camp had been on the Isle of Man way back in 1894, catering exclusively for young men who stayed in rows of candle-lit tents, but it was Butlin who set the style for this celebrated type of British holiday. Competing nowadays with cheap foreign travel, the three remaining camps are now called resorts and nobody has to stay in a draughty wooden hut, let alone a tent. Family entertainment, however, remains a key feature and the famous Butlins Redcoats still work tirelessly to keep the show on the road. The pictures in this set come from Butlins in Bognor Regis on the last weekend in February. The main attraction was the popular Sugababes girl group. They didn't sing "Hi-De-Hi" or, unsurprisingly, another traditional Butlins song called "Goodnight Campers", which starts "Good night campers, I can see you yawning, Good night Campers, see you in the morning, You must cheer up or you'll soon be dead ..". They played to a packed house and everyone had a wonderful time.

Welcome to Butlins Southcoast World in Bognor Regis (image 2491-26)

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