Bathing cabin
Bathing cabins reflected changes in bathing practices, which could be done in the nude or in an attire often deemed inappropriate by contemporary standards, even as late on as the early 19th century in Europe. Over time, they became an essential feature of seaside resorts in the Western world.
A historical feature of a beach/seaside resort
The primary purpose of the bathing cabin was to provide privacy for changing clothes, but at the start of the “modern” trend of sea bathing, in the late 17th century, the bathing cabin had yet to be created. The playful aspect of bathing only really emerged in the 18th century, embodied by temporary leisure structures and the emergence of specific objects, such as the Swiss chalet in 1723, mountain refuges in 1762, cabins used as beach chalets in 1867, and finally the bathing cabin in 1886. French writers, such as Guy de Maupassant and Gustave Flaubert frequently mentioned the presence of old cabins, bivouac tents, and bathing cabins in their accounts of life on the banks of the River Seine (Raveneau and Sirost, 2016).
In the absence of cabins, bathers, especially women, were forced to adapt and change in different locations, often up until the early 20th century. Édouard Richer (1823:635) only refers to the subject of bathing around Piriac-sur-Mer to describe a cavity among the rocks where women would undress. The site was very informal, although “in the local area, it is referred to as the Trou du Moine Fou” (Ill.1), probably reflecting the negative perceptions held by some regarding the effects of bathing. Through G.Touchard-Lafosse (1844:373), we know that it was local women who bathed there.

Ill. 1. Le Trou du moine fou, in Piriac-sur-Mer, photographed for a postcard in the 1970s (private collection)
Historically, the bathing cabin was the first building introduced at seaside resorts in the 19th century, becoming a standard feature once it became mandatory to dress for bathing. In 1841, the year after the regulation of bathing in Le Croisic, Mr Le Barbier de Pradun, a merchant, requested permission to build twenty-five huts along the municipality’s coastline, near the bathing areas. Initially, these huts were used by summer tourists as well as by local residents during the rest of the year. In 1853, Simon Roguet, a customs officer from Préfailles, was granted permission to build “four small shelters among the rocks, by the sea, for the convenience of bathers during the summer and to protect [customs officers] from harsh winter weather” (Vincent, 2011). In Argelès-sur-Mer, in the last quarter of the 19th century, wooden bathing cabins were installed on the sand, and several locals, also installed in wooden huts, started to sell refreshments and sweets to passers-by (Simon, 2008).
The bathing cabin became a major feature of the beach landscape in the Western world, a symbol of an area where the police had power thanks to the decrees passed by mayors eager to protect the reputation of their town. On some beaches, it was strictly prohibited for men and women to mingle, as in England. The segregation of beaches ended in the mid-19th century in French seaside resorts.
An emblematic feature of a beach/seaside resort
Bathing cabins come in various forms and can be installed in places other than on the beach: on dunes or on municipal or private land located inland (which is why we use the term “bathing cabin” instead of “beach cabin”, ill.2).

Ill. 2. Around some beaches, the cabins have become small homes. This is the case in Damgan (Morbihan), where these cabins were set up on municipal land in the early 20th century (private collection).
There are mobile cabins (originally called a bathing machine), temporary fixed cabins (removed at the end of each summer season), and permanent fixed cabins.
The first bathing machine appeared in England in the early 18th century, reportedly near Scarborough. It is referred to in the journal of Nicholas Blundell in 1721 (Allen: 62). The bathing machine is placed on a platform, typically measuring 1.2 metres by 1.8 metres, and is towed by a horse to transport the bather into the water, where the person could step out to swim and then climb back inside and remain sheltered from prying eyes. Although this type of equipment was expected by some tourists, the limited number of bathing machines led to them becoming somewhat marginalised: Margate only had 30 to 40 of them in 1793. Brighton still didn’t have any in 1816. However, the concept began to spread across Europe. In the 1820s, the municipality of Les Sables-d’Olonne took an interest in the subject, particularly after reading reports about them by the French consul in London, Baron Séguier:
“the bathing machines in Weymouth are indistinguishable from those found in almost every port along the English coast. They consist of a large, square, elongated box topped with a wooden roof, mounted on four wheels, with doors at both ends for entry and exit, and two small portable staircases. A horse is hitched to this mobile chamber and pulls it into the water at the desired depth” (Ill. 3).
Bathing-machines were set up on the beach at Les Sables-d’Olonne in 1830 through to the 1950s (with 20th century versions featuring small wheels that prevented them from being towed into the sea, unlike the original bathing-machine; Vincent, 2008). They were also found in Trouville-sur-Mer in the 1830s up until the early 20th century, as well as in Deauville and at Belgian seaside resorts.

Ill. 3. A mobile bathing cabin towed out of the water by a horse (Agence Rol, 1911, coll. Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Most other seaside resorts, particularly along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, opted for fixed cabins.
Temporary fixed cabins became easier to install once the autorisations d’occupation temporaire (AOT) issued by the public maritime domain became standard practice following the decree of 4 July 1853. However it was not until the Finance Act of 20 December 1872 that the principle of these AOTs ceased to be disputed (Vincent, 2008). At the beginning of the 20th century, especially with the growing popularity of sunbathing in the Western world, bathers remained at the cabin on the beach for the entire day (Ill.4).

Ill. 4. Construction of a sandcastle on Knokke beach, close to fixed bathing cabins (cl. Emile Henri t’Serstevens, coll. Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Belgium – CC BY-NC-SA). Mobile bathing cabins can be seen in the background.
This was now the most recognised form of bathing cabin on beaches in the West, along with beach tents. Built with a few wooden planks and typically featuring a double slope roof, these cabins were set up at the start of the season and removed at the end of the season for storage. Now, these temporary fixed cabins were often managed by local authorities or concession holders.
Permanent beach cabins were typically built by the établissements de bains de mer (sea bathing establishments) or municipalities. These elements, which were sometimes abandoned after the disappearance of the establishment that operated them, are generally the only ones designated as heritage sites on beaches. For example, in Deauville, the 250 concrete cabins, decorated with colourful mosaics (Ill.5) that replaced the dilapidated wooden cabins in 1921, have become iconic symbols of the resort (Toulier, 2005).

Ill. 5. The actress Suzy Solidor and her dog in August 1925 outside one of the bathing cabins in Deauville located on Les Planches (Agence Rol, coll. Bibliothèque nationale de France). This photo offers a glimpse of the cabin’s interior.
The idea was to reconcile two types of urbanisation: permanent development (theoretically) on the dunes with villas, and temporary structures on the beach with cabins. To win the favour of the authorities and thus, hopefully prolong their authorisations, some concession holders paid close attention to the quality of the materials used. In 1862, the Berteau couple stated that the eight bathing cabins they had built for Port-Lin beach in Le Croisic, “are the latest model, that of the site’s bathing establishment, run by Mr Deslandes”, one of the leading establishments in Loire-Atlantique at the time, located on Saint-Goustan beach in Le Croisic. The bathing cabins and tents lent the beach style. The guidebook “Les Petits trous pas chers” (Anonymous, 1903: 298) recalls that “what gives the beach at Les Sables its particularly original and charming appearance are the tents of all colours, shapes and sizes installed along its length, sometimes in several rows”.
From the promontory to the shoreline
The bathing cabin, now a key feature of seaside urbanisation, had become a thriving business that sparked renewed interest. The model of mobile cabins, reminiscent of England’s bathing-machines was spreading along the coasts of the English Channel and the North Sea but remained marginal on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
The bathing cabin was also a lucrative market for joiners and carpenters, who either built these new structures or even managed the bathing establishments. In the 1820s, the consul of France in London, Baron Séguier, noted that there is not “a carpenter in the village who is unable to do the same”. In La Bernerie-en-Retz, the carpenter Alphonse Barathon managed an establishment with nineteen cabins in 1874, increasing to thirty-six cabins and a wooden refreshment stand the following year. These craftsmen were in the best place for acquiring good value bathing cabins. Requests from carpenters increased in Piriac-sur-Mer from 1914 onwards: Mr Mabot for seven cabins in April, Mr Lethiec for seven cabins and Mr Lagré for six cabins in May. The requests from these three local carpenters were accepted and, for Mr Mabo and Mr Lagré, extended throughout the war (Vincent, 2011).
The proliferation of bathing cabins raised concerns about the human impact on the site, comparable to the seaside urbanisation. Smaller beaches were particular vulnerable to this. In 1908, Noirmoutier municipal council expressed a wish “that from now on, the Civil Engineering service no longer grants concessions for bathing cabins at both ends of Les Dames beach. The two points of this cove, which has a very artistic character, would be completely disfigured should this trend continue”. In 1912, Noëveillard beach in Le Pornic was renovated, the cabins were moved and a new café was installed (Ill. 6).

Ill. 6. Noëveillard beach before its renovation, in which beach cabins have started to encroach on the beach, while tents further limit the available space (postcard mailed in 1909, private collection)
For property owners, it was crucial to protect the sea view since it greatly increased the value of their homes. Consequently, the layout of the bathing cabins could lead to conflicts with owners. In 1926, a villa owner in La Bernerie-en-Retz lodged a complaint with the local authorities about the disturbance created by the construction of a bathing cabin 15 centimetres from the wall of his property. ln 1927, in response to the increasingly crowded conditions on Nau beach, the municipal council of Pouliguen discussed prohibiting any construction that might obstruct the sea views of property owners. While bathing cabins were an integral part of beach culture, their management often generated conflicts of interest that influenced the future of seaside resorts.
Seaside tourism was so lucrative that, immediately after the end of World War II, industrialists in France began advocating for beaches to be leased, something previously restricted during the German occupation, to set up bathing cabins. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, bathing cabins continued to proliferate, driven by the actions of concession holders (Vincent, 2018) or in relation to beach clubs. By the early 21st century, even related activities began to exploit this architecture, with open-air beach libraries using bathing cabins to house their collections, as seen in Granville (Groleau, 2013). The bathing cabin, a creative and recreational home (Raveneau and Sirost, 2011), is deeply rooted in the image of Western beach culture.
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