Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes

Melbourne is full of character and you won’t run out of things to do, especially if you love quirky sites and culture.  You can spend several days discovering interesting neighborhoods.  Brighton is an affluent area about 11 km outside of the central business district.  We took a stroll along Brighton Beach specifically because we wanted to see the beach bathing boxes.  We went very late in the afternoon and it felt like a bit of a ghost town because we expected there to be so many people. I even thought there would be vendors selling things out of these quirky colorful home like boxes.  I was completely wrong.  I have heard that in the early part of the day it does get super busy.

This side of the beach didn’t seem like a place for lounging and more of a site seeing art installation that is excellent for postcard pictures.  Apparently, these bathing boxes date back as far as 1862, when bathing in the daytime in the open was restricted.  The beach was even divided for males and females.

These sort of bathing boxes were usually used as shelter from wind and for changing in and out of swimwear.  Similar bath boxes or bath huts also exist in France, England, Italy and South Africa and have been used for vacationing as well.

I’d love to hear your stories with bathing boxes across the world.

You will likely have to walk through this path, depending on where you start at the Beach.

 

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