0:00:29 > 0:00:34Lowestoft is the most easterly point of our islands.
0:00:34 > 0:00:40Every morning, the sun hits this bit of the country first.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44And when you actually get out here, you want to go out and greet the sun.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Being at the seaside, the easiest way of getting
0:00:50 > 0:00:54that little bit closer, is by going to the end of a pier.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58For the last 150 years,
0:00:58 > 0:01:03they have been a vital part of our seaside architecture.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07But we are losing them fast.
0:01:07 > 0:01:12Since the 1970s, 11 piers have been lost completely.
0:01:12 > 0:01:18While others, like Lowestoft's Claremont Pier, still struggle on.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22To find out exactly what state it's in, the owner, David Scott,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26- offered to give me a guided tour. Hello, David.- Hi.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29- Can we go inside your pier? - Come on in.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32How many generations has it been in your family?
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Three generations, Mark, actually.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37- A real responsibility. - Huge responsibility.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42Surely these machines make sack-loads of money?
0:01:42 > 0:01:44Not bags of money. It used to be bags of money.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46THEY LAUGH TOGETHER
0:01:46 > 0:01:48- It's mad!- It's coming into life!
0:01:48 > 0:01:51'While David's arcade is still open for business,
0:01:51 > 0:01:57'the pier itself has been closed to the public since 1982.'
0:01:59 > 0:02:01It's wonderful to be out here.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05It's an unusual experience, isn't it, having the sea below you like this.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09- It's just fantastic.- But so sad. - Very, very sad indeed.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12It's a shame. It's not always been like this.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15What was this pier like in its Edwardian heyday?
0:02:15 > 0:02:17Absolutely wonderful, Mark.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19There was a sense of occasion coming onto a pier.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23Everyone dressed smartly, there was theatres.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27- The punters would promenade backwards and forwards? - It was absolutely packed.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31- Coming to collect the steamer, there. - How can a steamer dock there?
0:02:31 > 0:02:34It obviously used to be a lot longer than it is now. That's the trouble.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38With a T piece on the end as well, to moor up against. I can show you
0:02:38 > 0:02:41- some archive photographs. - There it is.- The steamer would stop
0:02:41 > 0:02:44on the end, on the way down to London, and ferry people back.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48It wasn't just a pleasure pier, it had a commercial function?
0:02:48 > 0:02:51- Absolutely. - So, what happened to the T piece?
0:02:51 > 0:02:54Time and tide have taken it away, unfortunately.
0:02:54 > 0:02:59Seeing Claremont like this, it is easy to forget that it,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02like many of our piers, had a real working past.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06Like the Victorian equivalent of an airport,
0:03:06 > 0:03:11they were arrival points for passengers visiting the seaside.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15But, unlike an airport, piers combined function with fun.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20The saucy shows and funfairs
0:03:20 > 0:03:24meant that they soon became leisure destinations in themselves.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29No self-respecting seaside resort could be without one.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34In the 50 years between 1860 and 1910,
0:03:34 > 0:03:3878 piers were built around the country.
0:03:38 > 0:03:46But today, many of the 54 that still stand are in as bad or worse condition then Claremont.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53Without the revenue from paddle steamers and their passengers,
0:03:53 > 0:03:58many piers ended up as endangered buildings housing arcade games and little else.
0:04:00 > 0:04:05But there are glimmers of hope. Just down the coast in Southwold,
0:04:05 > 0:04:09over £1 million has been spent renovating their pier,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12and the visitors are coming back.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16With the cost of air travel likely to increase over time,
0:04:16 > 0:04:20more of us may choose to holiday at home.
0:04:20 > 0:04:25So, let's just hope that some of that new tourist cash
0:04:25 > 0:04:27gets spent on Britain's piers.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47Keen amateur painter Alice Roberts is in Southwold
0:04:47 > 0:04:53to discover how artists have tried to capture the ephemeral nature of the coast.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59Like many other places on the coast,
0:04:59 > 0:05:02Southwold has a reputation for attracting artists.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07It's quite amazing to see
0:05:07 > 0:05:10the volume and quality of the work that has been produced here.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13But rather than go for another scientific analysis
0:05:13 > 0:05:15of why people are drawn to the coast,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18I'm going to look at the work of two very different artists
0:05:18 > 0:05:20at the end of the 19th century
0:05:20 > 0:05:24to try and discover a little bit more about the magic
0:05:24 > 0:05:28that so many of us feel when we're by the seaside.
0:05:29 > 0:05:35120 years ago, Southwold was the inspiration for two very different artists.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39English Impressionist painter Philip Wilson Steer captured
0:05:39 > 0:05:43the magic and movement of being by the seaside,
0:05:43 > 0:05:47while early photographer Peter Henry Emerson
0:05:47 > 0:05:52documented the lives of East Anglians.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56To discover more about the Southwold that inspired them, local writer
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Ian Collins is taking me to the best vantage point in town.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04Here we are in the centre of the lighthouse.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09- Oh wow, it's completely open. - Isn't it an amazing space?
0:06:09 > 0:06:15Built in the middle of the 1880s, so it coincides with the arrival of Steer and Emerson.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18I'd like to picture them coming up here, if they could bear the climb.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22It really is the way to see Southwold.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27- Now, here the steps get extremely steep, Alice.- Oh, yes.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35- This is a treat, is it not?- Wow! - Wonderful. Typical Southwold day.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38It would have been quite a lot smaller in Wilson Steer's day.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42There were farms in the town here. Very much a working fishing town.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45I think that's one of the things the artists liked,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48it was very much a working community.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51Did Southwold have the same sort of cachet, was it as smart
0:06:51 > 0:06:55- as it is today?- No, it was very poor. One of the attractions
0:06:55 > 0:06:58of Southwold to the artists would have been that it was cheap.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00Quite a few of them would have stayed
0:07:00 > 0:07:04with fishing families in streets like this one down here,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07which is now very desirable, but then was very simple.
0:07:09 > 0:07:15Philip Wilson Steer came to Southwold to paint for the first time in 1884.
0:07:16 > 0:07:21One of his most famous works depicts children paddling at the mouth of Southwold harbour.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26And to really understand the inspiration behind it, I want see the place itself.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33Here we are standing by the scene of the painting, as close as we can get.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37The boat coming in is just in front of the fishing boat we see here.
0:07:37 > 0:07:42- This bank here, is that what we can see?- Yes, it's lost its hut on the end and its capstan,
0:07:42 > 0:07:45but it is very much that arm of the harbour.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48Was he actually out here on the beach painting away,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51was he doing it "plein air", like the French Impressionists?
0:07:51 > 0:07:56To an extent. He went round taking lots of lightning sketches
0:07:56 > 0:07:59in pencil and crayon, and then he would take them back
0:07:59 > 0:08:03to Chelsea where he was living, and over the winter, he would then
0:08:03 > 0:08:07build them up into paintings. So, it's very much a recollection
0:08:07 > 0:08:09and it's an artist's impression.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15I really want to find out for myself how Wilson Steer's technique
0:08:15 > 0:08:19of making lightning fast sketches as the basis of a bigger painting
0:08:19 > 0:08:22changes the way you look at the coast.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31The sketching is as much about getting images fixed in your mind
0:08:31 > 0:08:34as it is about actually creating the sketch.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38What I'm going to do is take these away and try and do a painting
0:08:38 > 0:08:42which is more to do with the flavour of Southwold,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45a bit more thought put into it than just a snapshot.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Like Wilson Steer, I am going to get some distance from my sketches
0:08:52 > 0:08:55before I work them up into a painting.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59'At the same time Wilson Steer was working here,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02'the photographic pioneer Peter Henry Emerson was using
0:09:02 > 0:09:07'an entirely different technique to capture this stretch of coast.
0:09:07 > 0:09:12'To understand how he took photographs, John Bengerfield
0:09:12 > 0:09:16'has promised to give me an insight into the world of early photography.'
0:09:16 > 0:09:21We are so used to being able to take quick and easy digital photographs today.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25- Presumably it wasn't all that easy in his time?- That's right.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30Today, digital work is about that editing rather than taking, isn't it?
0:09:30 > 0:09:34And in those days when cameras were much larger and much more cumbersome,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37extremely heavy to carry and to set up on a tripod,
0:09:37 > 0:09:41every image that you took, took a fair amount of time to set up and expose.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45And if you were Emerson, you would become involved in the community
0:09:45 > 0:09:50for a long time. He got their respect before he started working there.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55But for Emerson, getting close to his subjects was only the first part of the equation.
0:09:55 > 0:10:01As important was the actual process of taking the photograph.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05Sue Andrews and her husband, Damien,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07have offered to show me how he did it.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12- Do you want to have a look through the button?- I'd love to.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17We probably need to put the cloth over our heads if we're going to have a look at the image.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20- So, this is going to be our photograph?- Yes.- It's upside down!
0:10:20 > 0:10:26- And back to front!- What you're looking at is a full colour image.
0:10:26 > 0:10:28Of course, what Peter Emerson would have been looking at
0:10:28 > 0:10:32- is the tonal range rather than the colour.- Also his depth of field,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34he was quite keen to mimic the way the eye sees,
0:10:34 > 0:10:37so he would have had a little bit that was very sharp,
0:10:37 > 0:10:42and the rest would be slightly less sharp.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45That effect which Emerson described as naturalistic,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47was central to much of his work.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Here, the reeds at the edge of the photo are out of focus,
0:10:50 > 0:10:55encouraging the eye to the figure in the centre of the frame.
0:10:55 > 0:11:02- I'm intrigued to discover if we can create the same effect in our photograph.- There we go!
0:11:02 > 0:11:03You slide this slide out here.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07- The film is now just sitting there at the back of the camera?- Yes.
0:11:07 > 0:11:08When I press this button...
0:11:08 > 0:11:13- It will open the lens and take the picture.- Right.- Go!
0:11:17 > 0:11:19With our image captured,
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Sue can begin developing the final photograph.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29Emerson would have used a glass plate instead of film.
0:11:29 > 0:11:37But he, like Sue and Damien, would still have had to develop it before the finished print was made.
0:11:48 > 0:11:54Next morning, the wait for Sue to bring the photograph is surprisingly nerve-racking.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02- Here we are.- Wow! There's Damien sitting at the table.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05You can see he's nice and sharp, as are these beach huts,
0:12:05 > 0:12:08and you can see the drifting focus we were talking about.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11I think you captured that really well, Sue.
0:12:11 > 0:12:12The focus is in the centre
0:12:12 > 0:12:16and you have softened it out as you go to the edge of the image.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19That was the essence of naturalistic photography
0:12:19 > 0:12:20as far as he was concerned.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24I think what is quite important is not just the actual technique,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28but the whole process makes you look at things differently.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32By taking your time, by looking, by being careful about everything,
0:12:32 > 0:12:34you make a different image.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37I am really pleased with our Emerson-style photograph,
0:12:37 > 0:12:41but now I want to go back to the sketches I made yesterday.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46So, like Wilson Steer, I'm going to get away
0:12:46 > 0:12:50from my source of inspiration and paint Southwold
0:12:50 > 0:12:53purely from my sketches and the memories they evoke.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05I think I want to get all these different bits of Southwold in,
0:13:05 > 0:13:08like the lighthouse, but I don't want to be looking inland
0:13:08 > 0:13:11and not at the sea, so I've got to try and work that out.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13I want the pier in it as well.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20Taking the photo with Sue, so much of the decision was where
0:13:20 > 0:13:24to put the camera, so it captured exactly the image we wanted.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28But painting like this, the camera's in my mind. I can put it anywhere
0:13:28 > 0:13:30and include anything I want,
0:13:30 > 0:13:35even if in real life the view I'm painting doesn't actually exist.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48I think that's it.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52It's interesting because it's so different from sitting outside
0:13:52 > 0:13:55with your sketchbook and doing sketches initially
0:13:55 > 0:13:59or doing a whole painting initially. It's much more thoughtful.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01It's putting something together
0:14:01 > 0:14:04from all the different bits and pieces you've seen.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08There's nowhere in Southwold that looks like this
0:14:08 > 0:14:10and yet it looks like Southwold.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12It's my Southwold.
0:14:16 > 0:14:21I've really enjoyed being here at Southwold and spending time to experience the place
0:14:21 > 0:14:26because the painting and sketching have made me slow down and look around me.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30You get a real feel for the investment that artists and photographers put in,
0:14:30 > 0:14:34so that they have captured their own idea of the coast to take away with them.