En route pour la plage....

If this wasn't enough to draw you to the Belgian beaches, nothing could.
(Publicity postcard published by V.G. Brussels, dated 1904)

Blankenberge beach

The beach at Blankenberge with the characteristic bathing machines. In the background is the famous pier, inaugurated in 1894, only a few years before this picture was taken and the first of its kind on this side of the Atlantic. Boasting an octagonal platform with a festive hall, the 350 meters long Blankenberge pier withstood many storms, but not the Germans who burnt it down in 1915. The pier was rebuilt in 1933.
(Collection of Family Cordy-Vernieuwe, dated 1897/98)

The Blankenberge sea front

This postcard of the Blankenberge sea front shows the pier, the statue of Lippens and De Bruyne, erected in 1900, and the towers of the Casino, built in 1884-1886. The monument commemorates the death of the Belgian soldiers Joseph Lippens and Blankenberge-born Henri De Bruyne, killed in the Congo in 1892.
(Postcard, publisher unknown, before 1914)

The pleasures of the beach

The pleasures of the beach were somewhat different from today. Most people pictured above are still wearing their formal clothing. The craze for sunbathing would only begin in the late 1920s and 1930s.
(Ostend, postcard published by V.G. Brussels, before 1914)

Mothers' delight

Where there is sand, there are sand castles. Children try their hand at castle building under the amused eye of two women. Shoes are carefully collected on a chair.
(Oostduinkerke, postcard published by Gauquié, before 1914)

Braving the surf

No matter that you look like a gang of jailbirds, nothing beats a dip into the briny sea. Since swimming pools and beach holidays weren't as common as now, people used to rent their bathing suits, and for the men there was little variety in design.
(Ostend, postcard published by A. Scheers, dated 1913).

Bathing machines

A bathing machine is of course not a machine, but a damp wooden box on wheels, rented for changing clothes and often drawn by horses to the edge of the sea. They were a relic from the 18th century but had gained new life in the Victorian age, when segregated bathing became the rule.
(De Panne, postcard published by Dr. Trenkler C°, Leipzig, dated 1911)

Swimsuits

Swimsuits for women came in a variety of style and colour, although they all had one thing in common: they were utterly inelegant.
(Ostend, postcard published by A. Scheers, dated 1913).

A family outing

Not everybody was as keen to get into the water, but a day at the beach was nonetheless fun for the whole family and had to be preserved on photo.
(Collection of Nowé-Vanderstegen, date and photographer unknown)

A family outing

Scenes like this may be hard to imagine today, but at least beach holidays seem to have added to the family unity.
(Collection of Nowé-Vanderstegen, date and photographer unknown)

Ostend Casino

The Ostend Casino-Kursaal built in 1875-1878 at the initiative of the liberal mayor Jean-Ignace Van Iseghem on the west end of the seafront. It replaced the old casino on a different location in the city.
(Albumen print carte-de-visite from Victor Daveluy, Bruges - Collection of Nowé-Vanderstegen, dated ca. 1878-1881)

Ostend Casino

This 1912 shot taken from the beach at Ostend shows the famous Casino-Kursaal after the refurbishments of 1898-1907. As the symbol par excellence of any self-respecting beach resort, the Ostend casino was transformed by the French architect Alban Chambon into an expensive fairytale-like extravaganza, displaying Hindu- and Byzantine-style decorations. It came to an inglorious end in 1942 when the German occupants replaced it with a bunker for their Atlantikwall.
(Postcard published by Schadeck, Ostend, dated 1912)

Holiday camps on the coast

The Belgian coast also became a natural destination for holiday camps and open-air schools, as this group of boys chaperoned by Diesterweg's Hulpkas photographed in the dunes of Lombardsijde in 1899.
(Collection of Diesterweg's Hulpkas, photographer unknown).

Lifeguards

What may look like the start of a whaling expedition was in fact the local Baywatch team of the day. Equipped to face anything the treacherous North Sea could throw at them, these brave men kept an eye on the beaches of De Haan.
(Postcard published by René Berger, dated 1907)

The Viennese touch

For anybody who wanted to take a souvenir of the beach at home, the studio "Photographie Viennoise" had the answer, as can be seen from this marine-clad toddler. The owner was actually a Prussian émigré Gustave Triebels who had settled on the Belgian coast in the 1880s and ran studios in Blankenberge and Heist, as well as in Ghent and Bruges.
(Collection of Nowé-Vanderstegen, between 1881-1904)