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| Deckchairs for hire. Image from the Geograph Project |
They conjure images of ocean liners, travel and Somerset Maugham.... Brighton beach and people in blazers and boaters sipping tea in English gardens.Yes, I'm talking about those old-fashioned wooden deckchairs that look lovely but are perhaps not 100% comfortable...or is that just me?
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| Stripes from deckchairstripes.com |
The classic wooden-framed foldable deckchairs were originally designed for ships, so passengers could relax on deck and of course, when not in use, they could be conveniently folded up and stacked flat for storage.
These old-style deckchairs had a colourful, canvas cover, either in a gay stripe or a single, bright block of colour. When unfolded, the chairs had only one position but developments in deckchair technology led to the addition of notches in the wood so that the sitter could vary the reclining position.
Over the decades, the deckchairs gradually got supplanted by the plastic variety of garden furniture and of course, these days there's a plethora of outdoor chair styles to choose from. While they're still around ('specially in England), they're not as common as they used to be - thus brand new deck chairs in the old-fashioned style can sometimes be surprisingly hard to find. UK company,
SouthSea Deckchairs has a grand selection. Another option is to buy the old wooden chair frames (try ebay) and vamp them up with new cloth.
Deckchairstripes.com has a terrific range of stripes..and they didn't pay me to say that! You can also find nice stripey canvas at Amazon.
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| Fun in the sun in the 1940s |
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| Very fancy Edwardian deckchair from Southsea deckchairs |
