ImagesBrighton pictures of the week 5-9-2005

IMAGESBRIGHTON photography by david gray
	D E C K C H A I R S
	P I C T U R E S O F T H E W E E K 5 - 9 - 2 0 0 5

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The subject of this week's picture set is deckchairs. The weather may still be hot, but it's the end of summer and soon these fabric-covered favourites won't be so common on beaches and in parks. In fact, at least in Brighton, there has been a long-term decline in the use of deckchairs on the seafront and their numbers have fallen from 3000 a couple of years ago to barely 1700 this season. People nowadays are either saving money and sitting on the pebbles or bringing along their own plastic sunloungers. It'll be a shame to see them disappear, since their colourful stripes are as iconic of our beaches as the red phone box used to be of our streets. The very first deckchairs appeared in the 1880s quite literally on the decks of P & O ships and they then became popular on piers and promenades at the British seaside. Now another simple and familiar pleasure appears to be on the way out. Next summer, sit on the first one you find, it may be one of the last you see.

Deckchairs in the breeze on Brighton beach in September 2005 (image 2632-66)

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