Images of Welsh Seaside Tourism in Punch, or the London Charivari , 1841–1900

From the mid-nineteenth century, British seaside tourism became increasingly popular among the elite as well as the lower classes. Older resorts such as Brighton bloomed, and new resorts such as Llandudno were built, often in previously inaccessible and far-flung areas such as Wales. Seaside tourism, and leisure in general, was not perceived as a fully innocent pastime, however, and magazines such as Punch arduously played into the controversy. Although most of its attention was directed towards England, Punch also satirized the growing Welsh seaside tourist industry. This article explores how Punch represented Welsh resorts in two diagonally opposed ways: as loci of both decadence and primitiveness.