Beach-side routines, hired boats, deckchairs, bathing, promenading, and summer crowds once formed a dense seasonal culture now mostly gone.
Historic image gallery
Archival and reference images collected for this page. They are here to help fix the place in memory, not to act as the final caption set.
Then / Now compare
Historic reading
Use postcards and promenade views against the current frontage to test what survives in alignment, not fabric.
Present landscape
The holiday identity is largely cultural memory now, with only the bay and seafront frame intact.
What it was
West Bay once carried a larger working holiday culture: people rented boats, swam, paraded, sat out, and treated the front as a social stage.
What was lost
A whole rhythm of town life rather than a single structure. The loss is atmospheric as much as physical.
What remains now
The bay, the front, and some memory of how it used to feel when the town was in season.
Research leads
Add oral-history clips, postcards, and business adverts for amusements and boat hire.