Britains 1st nudist beach opens
Brighton, Sussex The 1st of April 1980 AD
It was certainly a more innocent time, though some of those opposing the proposed nudist beach at Brighton (somehow fittingly near Peter Pan’s Playground) would have had you believe that creating a nudist beach, and what would happen there, would be on a par with some of Caligula’s wilder social gatherings. Wonderfully the debate included the timeless phrase: “Flagrant exhibition of mammary glands.”
On August 7 1979 the local council – then Conservative controlled - agreed to the idea, the beach formerly opening as a nudist facility on April 1 the following year, after the erection of signage to warn those approaching about what they were approaching, or in the case of the tide of perverts predicted by some parties to let them know they had arrived.
In spite of a campaign against the beach a couple of years later, the facility remains; indeed, others have followed (birthday) suit around the country, with similar stretches of sand and shingle at places such as Corton in Suffolk , the unlikely Budleigh Salterton in Devon , and – it is difficult not to think of chilly winds and their effects – Cleat’s Shore on Arran .
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