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South for Sunshine

Holiday resorts

The Southern Railway claimed that the south coast was Britain's chief holiday resort. It advertised holidays in summer and winter. The motor car was still in its infancy, a toy for the rich rather than a serious rival, and the train was almost the only way to travel any distance.

The Southern Railway was keen to publicise the fact that a holiday on the south coast would provide everything anyone could require. Booklets with titles such as "Buy British Sunshine Holidays", and "You and Me and Holidays" were produced alongside resort posters with slogans such as "Sunny Shores and Cooling Breezes, Southern Coastline always pleases" and "The Sun Shines most on the Southern Coast".

There is sunshine in the South Poster

Southern Railway. There is sunshine in the South by P. Irwin Brown, 1930
© National Railway Museum / Science & Society Picture Library

Each spring, the Southern Railway produced a book called "Hints for Holidays", based on the guide books first published by the London and South Western Railway in 1899, with information about resorts which could be reached by the Southern Railway. The book gave details of each town or area's facilities and how to reach them by train but also over half of the book was taken up by advertisements for hotels and boarding houses. The 1924 book had 260 pages, which increased to over 900 in the 1930s. The book was not published in the years from 1941 to 1945 because of the war and the somewhat smaller 1947 edition was the last produced by the Southern Railway before nationalisation.

In the summertime, visitors were encouraged to take holidays in places such as Eastbourne. Eastbourne was known as one of the South's more genteel resorts, with Beachy Head to the south west and the Downs behind it. It was also only 66 miles from London and promoted by doctors as invigorating for the weak and a tonic to the strong.

Eastbourne also sought to attract commuters. There were several electric expresses daily to London with Pullman breakfast cars. In 1935, the Southern Railway even issused a booklet called "Southern Homes on the Conqueror's Coast served by Southern Electric".

Eastbourne Poster

Travellers were encouraged to go south for winter sunshine and to participate in such pursuits as rambling and golf. Rambling was a popular pastime between the wars. The Southern Railway produced booklets, posters and tickets to encourage the hobby. The ramblers' books produced provided details of a number of walks in each area served by the Southern Railway. The walks normally started and ended at railway stations. "Go as you please" tickets allowed outward and return journeys from different stations so that walkers did not have to retrace their steps.

Hike for health Poster

Like other companies, the Southern Railway provided "camping coaches" in which holidaymakers could stay at many of its wayside stations. These were in the holiday areas of Devon, Cornwall and the New Forest. The coaches provided were extensively adapted to contain everything that the holidaymaker could require. In its camping coach leaflets, the Southern Railway was not very complimentary about the "old way" of camping out but still happy to provide details of camping sites in Southern England and how to reach them.

The Southen Railway also began to operate ships over many routes to the Continent and was keen to make information available to assist travellers in choosing where to spend holidays abroad. The earliest continental guidebook was a simple description of the Route from London to the Channel port but later booklets gave details of how to obtain visas, foreign currency and passports. Some of the "Off the Beaten Track" booklets, which were published throughout the Southern Railway's existence from 1924 until 1947, advertised destinations as far away as Egypt and Palestine.

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South for Sunshine

Holiday resorts