2-667-935 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

Railway carriage converted into a holiday home, possibly at Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, 1920s. Silver gelatin DOP (developing out paper) print. Holidaymakers pose on the verandah. Between the wars, the freedom offered by the motor car and ambiguous planning regulations stimulated the creation of plotland developments in remote or undeveloped stretches of coastline and countryside. Shoreham Beach in West Sussex was one such development, and these photographs may have been taken there. Railway carriages, cheap to build shacks and bungalows were built or converted to be both holiday homes and more permanent dwellings. Plotland developments principally catered for the urban working class, but they also attracted artistic and bohemian folk, eager to find places free from conventional restrictions where open skies and dramatic changes in the weather could stimulate artistic creativity.