New Brighton is a beautiful seaside resort on the Wirral Peninsula, three miles from Liverpool. It was originally a watering place for wealthy merchants of Liverpool. These photographs show what the New Brighton resort looked like in the 1980s. Martin Parr captured these photos for his series ‘The Last Resort’ in the mid-80s.
It was an intimate freeze-frame of New Brighton, a time capsule of the holiday’s working-class families during Thatcher’s reign. He documented the realities of the working-class; there is nothing innately simple or conformist about his characters, they are just portrayed as is. These photographs depict a seaside resort past its prime with attractions designed to appeal to an economically depressed working class: overcrowded beaches, video arcades, beauty competitions, tea rooms, and chip shops.
