1936 On the Continent

children to a Kursaal, whose attractions comprise a zoo and innumerable sensations in the way of switchbacks and scenic railways.
Whelks and Cockles
    Oysters, shrimps, whelks and cockles are the especial Southend fish delicacies. They are usually consumed to the accompaniment of stout. On the pier there is a band pavilion and concert hall, also a big dance hall. The public gardens contain tennis courts, bowling greens and miniature golf courses.
The River Steamers
    A word about the “Royal Eagle,” which with its sister ship “Crested Eagle,” is the most popular steamer plying from London in a seaward direction. It is the largest and best fitted pleasure steamer the Thames has known. Built in 1932, one of its features is a large glass-enclosed main deck, where passengers can sit and enjoy the sunshine without being exposed to the wind. An open top deck runs nearly the whole length of the ship, where one may bask luxuriously in lounge chairs.
    The steamer sails daily between the Tower and Ramsgate at a speed of 19 knots, taking its passengers far beyond the Nore Lightship and out into the open sea round the point of the North Foreland. Lobster teas are a feature of its commissariat.
    From Southend the “Royal Eagle” cuts across the wide estuary of the river to Margate, on the Kent shore, the course passing close to the Nore Lightship, whose red hull gently yawing in the fairway marks the seaward limit of the Port of London Authority.
    Beyond the Nore you are at sea, and a chart of the river about here reveals a bewildering muddle of lights and lightships, beacons, buoys and sandbanks. There are names such as East Spaniard, Shivering Sand, Knock John,Ham Gut; old wrecks are marked upon the chart, so that one feels like a desperate character aboard a buccaneering galleon instead of a fare-paying passenger on a day-trip paddle steamer from London.
The Thames—Steamer Services
    The London (Kingston) to Oxford services are maintained by the boats of Messrs. Salter Bros., the well-known Oxford firm of boat builders. A service runs each way daily, two days being necessary for the complete trip. The boats can be joined at any lock or regular stopping place on the river; and if hailed from a ferry or hired small craft they will slow down for passengers to embark. There are dining and recreation saloons on board, but no sleeping accommodation. The night is spent at Henley, both on the up-river and down-river journey.
    For shorter trips above London—to Hampton Court, Richmond, Twickenham etc.—there are steamers starting from Westminster pier, Richmond and Kingston.
    The “Royal Eagle” and the “Crested Eagle” are run by the General Steam Navigation Company. They start from Tower Pier about nine in the morning, and the full trip to Ramsgate and back takes 13-16 hours, with stops at Woolwich, Greenwich, Gravesend, Southend, and Margate in both directions.
    Tickets for all Thames steamers can be booked at any travel bureau during the season.

ROUND
THE SHORES OF BRITAIN
By ROLF BENNETT
    N O one can truly boast of knowing Britain, who has only seen it from dry land or whose visits have been confined to the cities and inland towns. Of wonderful historic interest, as many of these are, surrounded, too, by delightful country, they are not typical in the same way that the great seaside resorts are. For it is by the sea, and only by the sea, that the real Briton reveals himself and casts aside his normal mask of reserve. Though the British “Mrs. Grundy” is by no means dead and buried, yet her blighting influence makes itself felt less by the seaside than anywhere else. There may be a few prim and proper watering-places where she still refuses to recognise mixed bathing, insists that bathers shall be clad as though they were about to set out on a polar expedition, and frowns at night-clubs and dancing after midnight. But they are Victorian relics, “museum pieces,” which have lagged behind and are doomed to decay genteely while the world passes them by.
    No such places as these will be found in the following brief survey of some of Britain’s most famous coast resorts. Without exception, they are up to date in the best sense of that somewhat abused term. While refusing to tolerate any form of amusement which could be called vicious, or even questionable, they have fully awakened to the fact that this is 1937 and not 1837. They recognise that the visitor has come to be amused and entertained, not bored or