General social issues regarding seaside shelters were discussed in an earlier post, but a recurring theme, also touched upon by Neil Finneran’s paper Beside the Seaside, is homelessness. He referenced an article by Rachel Kiddey and John Schofield on homelessness in Bristol, which focused on the use of historic sites for rough sleeping but not specifically seaside shelters. However, locally to me in the nearby town of Weston Super Mare, there have been several news reports and articles written about the problem of people sleeping in the Victorian seaside shelters.
Homelessness is a wider problem beyond the scope of this project, but still important to consider as a current function of shelters, as well as another type of social interaction that takes place in these locations. The shelters provide a free place of rest, with a roof, protected from the elements. Whilst it may feel uncomfortable or immoral even, to design out the opportunity for sleeping in these places for example by dividing up benches, the sight of homelessness can prevent others from using the shelters, as can be seen in the image below at Weston Super Mare from the Bristol Post. The effects of this kind of use can also be damaging; litter, potential use as a toilet and as Kinney and Schofield discuss, drinking, drug taking and prostitution can often become a problem in places where frequent rough sleeping takes place. Some homeless people they worked with would find themselves victims of attacks too.
Preventing homeless sleeping in seaside shelters is not something that can be prevented by redesign. But this can be considered when looking at locations, visibility, public convenience and by working alongside local councils and charities.
Bristol Post, 2020
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