In the 18th century, beachgoers did not stroll freely into the surf. Instead, they stepped into small wooden huts on wheels known as bathing machines. These curious contraptions, pulled by horses or people, rolled straight into the sea so bathers could enter the water unseen. For over a century, they defined the proper way to swim in public.
Concealment by Design
Bathing machines were wooden or canvas-covered carts with curtained doors and sometimes small windows. People entered fully dressed, changed inside, and emerged in swimwear through the seaside door. Some machines had umbrellas or tents that dropped into the water for complete privacy. A flag atop the roof signaled when the bather wished to be pulled back ashore.
From Margate to the Monarchy
The first known bathing machines appeared around 1750 in Margate, Kent, possibly invented by Quaker Benjamin Beale, who added a canvas “umbrella” to shield users. Others claim the earliest advertisement came from Leith, near Edinburgh, in August 1750. By the 19th century, they dotted beaches from Britain to Germany, France, and the United States. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert used one at Osborne Beach on the Isle of Wight, complete with a verandah, curtains, and even a small toilet.
Rules of Respectability
Bathing etiquette demanded that men and women bathe separately. Even with machines, modesty was paramount. Male bathers were allowed to swim nude until the 1860s, while women were often assisted by “dippers,” attendants who guided or pushed them into the sea. Some resorts even used steam engines to haul the carts through the waves.
The Tide Turns
By the 1890s, mixed bathing became acceptable, and the need for mobile privacy vanished. Machines were left parked on the sand and converted into changing huts. Legal segregation ended in 1901, and by 1914, most had disappeared from British beaches. Yet their image endured, captured in paintings like Eric Ravilious’s 1938 depiction of the few that remained at Aldeburgh. Today, stationary beach huts across the world trace their origins to these rolling rooms of the sea.
In the 18th century, a trip to the beach looked nothing like it does today.
Modesty ruled, and bathers entered the sea inside wheeled wooden huts called bathing machines.
These rolling rooms carried people straight into the waves, letting them swim unseen by those on… pic.twitter.com/MDptP4wzC3
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) October 18, 2025