1842 - Ramsgate Seaside Resort

Publication The Age, London, Middlesex - September 11, 1842 In a review of the various seaside resorts of interest to travelers during the Victorian period, a reporter for this London newspaper wrote about the rampant male nudity on the shores at Ramsgate.   Other writings during this period indicate that about 90% of all men at this and other similar resorts would bathe in the waters completely naked while also being in the immediate presence of the females who were also sea bathing but wearing conservative canvas bathing dresses (this manner of nude male sea bathing while women were present eventually was labeled "promiscuous bathing", and was rampant in the mid 19th century).  Of interest is his observation of how the nude men on its beaches had become the "principal" attraction for the resort, particularly for the many voyeuristic women that came to see the naked men.    The growing popularity of the resorts where men were commonly on the shores completely nude as opposed to those that restricted such nudity was a phenomenon cited in the book "Recreation and the Sea" presented on another page of this website.    Although viewing male nudity at the beach in today's times is not an attraction for women, as evidenced in this book it evidently it was for Victorian women, and the increase in crowds because of it commensurately increased the profits received by the resort owners.   Because of this, many resort areas ignored the laws prohibiting men from being completely naked at the beach when in a mixed-gender public setting.   It was not until the 1870s that such laws really took root.

"Ramsgate

The prorogation of Parliament has had a manifest effect in pouring a number of good families into this favourite watering place; and the naked people [men] bathing in the sea appear, as usual, to be the principal attraction of the season. The curiosity of the ladies is undiminished, or rather is upon the increase; but when will female curiosity ever be satisfied?  And, after all, where is the great difference between looking at the naked figure of a man in the ocean, and the figure of a naked man in the gallery of the Louvre ?—between scrutinizing Cetito in elastic flesh coloured drawers on the Opera stage and respectable tradesman from town without any drawers on at all in the water? Prejudice all!  Ramsgate has become another London with regards to the habit of life, where everyone lives without attracting observation, as his purse or inclination dictates. There are music and songs at the Library on Sion-hill or Wellington-square nightly, and persons who are fond of seeing life in all its varieties may be gratified by an excursion to the festivities of St. Peter's Gardens; but after all, it must be acknowledged that at Ramsgate the bathers upon the sands continue to be the staple attraction of the place - such is the naked truth!"

The original .pdf file of the newspaper's full page is included within the archival document download.