Brighton Celebrates 30 Years of Nudist Beaches
Posted on | August 10, 2009 | No Comments
View From Brighton Nudist Beach
Brighton Short Breaks Celebrates 30 years of Nudism. It was 30 years ago this week that one of the truly great things in Brighton was established.
On August 9, 1979: Brighton Beach was given permission to go set aside an area dedicated to the freedom of sun bathing and sea bathing nude! In the true tradition of Brighton and its liberal attitudes it was the first major resort in Britain to allow a portion of the beach to be designated for use by nude bathers – and its still something that it proudly defended by its users – both occasional and regular.
The beach is generally populated by a fairly broad section of society. Yes, there will always be the occasional person who drifts through purely to get a glimpse of something that seems otherwise to be missing from their lives – a naked breast, a bare bum, or the bits at the front even! Excuse my tone – but the amazing thing about the beach is that once you’ve gotten over the initial awkwardness of taking off your kit – it does eventually feel so much more natural (hence the word naturist!) and comfortable, to the extent that finding myself on a beach which demands swim wear, I feel positively encumbered by clothing!
To celebrate the event I spent (admittedly a rather cloudy) afternoon down there yesterday and was interested to see who uses this facility, hard fought for originally by Councillor Eileen Jakes, a 47 year old Grandmother in 1979, who believed the beach would be an asset to the town (as it was then) and in the face of fierce opposition from Councillor John Blackman – who objected to it on the terms that it brought the town into disrepute and would attract even more ‘deviants’ – ( I should say that Brighton takes pride in its cultural diversity in a way that no other city in the UK does – and we laugh dismissively at the term ‘deviant’)Looking around the busy beach, its very interesting to see the types of people who are attracted to it.
There are a large number of gay men – but that’s to be expected given the population of Brighton. There are also a great number of straight couples. In both groups the age range is very broad ranging from late teens through to octogenarians. Having warmed myself thoroughly, given the anniversary, I was keen to ask one or two of my fellow nudists what it is that attracts them so much to the beach.This required a certain amount of tact – given that we British are pretty slow to strike up a conversation with any stranger next to us – and I was particularly aware that striking up a conversation with a stranger when both myself and they were totally naked seemed to present particular challenges. So – I took the easy route and scanned the beach for a familiar face and spotted a friend of many years Peter Drewhurst – a fine figure of a (naked) man at 42 years of age! I asked him why this was his beach of choice.‘
Brighton Nudist Beach
The main reason I started coming to this particular beach was because its much more peaceful – mainly because it doesn’t really appeal to families so there are no screaming mums and kids running up and down!’It would seem that this slightly antisocial view is fairly prevalent – and I found it repeated a couple of times chatting to people…. But to paraphrase Peter , I think it would be better expressed in the terms that the nudist beach is more of a an ’adult’ beach as the complete absence of any facilities in terms of shops or cafes means its difficult to keep young children happy for too long with the temping sights of funfairs and ice creams vans off in the distance.So accepting the potential for greater peace and quiet here, what then makes the new arrival, searching for tranquillity, then decide to take off their pants?
Peter: ‘ Well, initially I was a bit shy and kept my swim stuff on – but after a while I felt a bit of a hypocrite so took my trunks off just not to seem churlish! And after a while you get so used to it that you don’t want to put them back on! And in practical terms – getting In and out of the sea and then lying in wet swimming things is uncomfortable so being naked makes much more sense!’Next I approached a man and a woman sitting close by who had heard the topic of our discussion and were delighted to know they were some how celebrating the anniversary of the nudist revolution in Brighton.They were Rachel and Dave Partington, who had driven over from Kent to enjoy the beach and were regular visitors.Both in their early 30’s, for both of them they felt it was a much more relaxed way of enjoying the elements.Rachel: ‘ Dave was keener than me at first – men seem to take to it more readily than women I think – and I used to keep by bikini bottoms on at first – but soon it seemed a bit pointless covering up when, really, no one was batting a n eyelid – and now it’s the best way to be I reckon.’
Dave: ‘ The drive is over and hour and a half to get here sometimes , but we still prefer to come over here than sit n a beach back in Kent with our clothes on.We’ve been coming here for a few years now and know so many people to say hello to that it makes it a really nice atmosphere!’One thing I did notice whilst I was sitting there myself is the large number of people who seem to be regulars and spend much of their time walking up and down the beach pausing to chat to a individual here, a couple there – and clearly there’s a regular crowd who have good reason to be grateful to Councillor Eileen Jakes.The one thing I did find all the people on Brighton’s Nudist Beach reluctant to relinquish – was their sandals and flip flops – especially getting in and out of the sea as the stony beach makes for uncomfortable walking – but a small price to pay for the joys of Nudism.
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