daytrippers

Take an English seaside town on a holiday weekend. The gods are smiling and the sun is shining. In fact, it’s blazing hot. Broadstairs on the Kent coast has all the traditional elements – commanding Victorian buildings, sandy bays filled with deck chairs and windbreaks, a plethora of beach huts. Throw in a fish and chip lunch at a pub, an ice-cream sundae at an old-fashioned cafe and a touch of sunburn, and you have a day of memories. It was the same for the throngs who joined us that day, bringing so many people into this pen portrait of British life by the sea.

Click first image to view the gallery

Canvey Island lies in the Thames estuary in my native county of Essex. Its history was scarred by a devastating flood in 1953 which claimed 58 lives and led to the construction of miles of protective high sea walls.

I returned recently having visited relatives there as a child, but this was my first taste of Canvey’s walls and waterfront on a warm, humid summer’s day. It was full of daytripping families, some local voices peppered with Eastern European migrants. The painted walls tell the story of 1953 against the backdrop of amusements and cafes selling ice-cream and burgers.

The estuary landscape is stark but beautiful, with the crowds of people adding colour and life to photographs. It’s a place of both symmetry and the unpredictability of life.