ART & ARTISTS: British Seaside Posters

Monday, 1 September 2025

British Seaside Posters - part 1

In 1871, the British Government declared the Bank Holidays act, throughout the year there were official holidays allowing people time away from their jobs. While the wealthier families often stayed for a week in the summer, the great improvements made to the railway system some thirty years before allowed the working classes to get away on day trips for some healthy fresh air at seaside towns. This great influx of visitors led entrepreneurs to build accommodation and new attractions to capitalise and kick started economic growth in the coastal towns.

This is part 1 of a 4-part series on British Seaside Posters:

c1908 G.N.R. (Great Northern Railway)
Skegness is So Bracing by John Hassall

c1908 G.N.R. Skegness by John Hassall

1908 Skegness is So Bracing by John Hassall: The Jolly Fisherman is a poster created by artist John Hassall in 1908 after he had been commissioned by the Great Northern Railway (GNR). It is regarded as one of the most famous holiday advertisements of all time and is believed to have influenced the success of Skegness, Lincolnshire as a holiday destination. Hassall was paid 12 Guineas for his work, and the original painting hangs in the town hall at Skegness. The poster depicts a fisherman skipping along the beach, with the slogan "Skegness is SO bracing". There are different versions of the poster, however, the fisherman and the slogan are always part of the design; one such later design, promoted by the LNER, showed the same fishermen design being tugged along the beach by a toddler hanging onto his scarf. John Hassall visited Skegness in 1936, and was quoted as saying "[that Skegness] was even more bracing and attractive than I had been led to expect.”

Note: A series on the works of John Hassall can be found in the index.

1908 Skegness is So Bracing
John Hassall

1908 Skegness is So Bracing
It's Quicker By Rail
John Hassall

1920s Lowestoft by Henry George Gawthorn (1879-1941) was born in Northampton and studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic and old Heatherley School. He began his career in an architect’s office before turning to painting. His work both fine and commercial art; he exhibited at the Royal Academy and with the Society of Graphic Art.

1920s Lowestoft LMS
Henry George Gawthorn

1921 Brighton (UK)
French poster

c1923 Saltburn by the Sea L.N.E.R.
Henry George Gawthorn

Frank Newbould was a poster and black-and-white artist, born in 1887 in Bradford, UK. He studied at the local College of Art and won several silver and bronze medals in national competitions. During and after World War I he was a black-and-white artist, working for such publications as Passing Show, but more profitable poster work attracted him, and he became one of the most prolific and distinguished practitioners in the inter-war period. Initially he worked for Morton Studios in Fleet Street, then set up his own studio. His posters for Orient Lines and London North Eastern Railway were notable, especially landscapes studied on location. Exhibited Chenil Galleries and lived in London. He died in 1951.