Feature: Seaside huts perfect getaway for British beachophiles

An on-line auction ended in Britain Saturday as people out-bid each other to win a slice of a seaside tradition that goes back to the 1800s.

Britons love nothing better than to be by the seaside, and the ultimate accessory is a beach hut.

The newest collection of beach huts, each 2.4 meters by 1.8 meters, have been offered to the highest bidders by the local authority covering the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare on the coast of the Bristol Channel in the county of Somerset.

Beach-lovers are offering to pay thousands of dollars just for the right to lease a beach hut from the local council from May 2 until next February.

Beach huts became popular in the days of Queen Victoria when 19th century ladies needed a private space to spare their modesty, and their blushes, as they changed into their bathing swimsuits.

Now they have become mini homes as families own, or lease, their own little slice of beach, a small wooden hut to use as their base on their visits to the seaside.

There are 20,000 of the often colorful huts dotted around English beaches, usually at beauty spots. Such is the demand, and the passion, for the humble beach hut that, depending on the locations, they are bought and sold for tens of thousands of dollars.

One wooden beach hut, slightly larger than the normal version, was offered for sale with a price tag of 410,000 U.S. dollars, with others on the south coast of England bought for around 230,000 U.S. dollars.

Just a few weeks ago, a line of 11 modest beach huts in Dorset were offered for sale with an expected price of just over 30,000 U.S. dollars and within days they were all sold for 64,000 U.S. dollars each, a nice bonus for the local council who built them.

Owners of beach huts have included royalty and celebrity movie stars, with most owned by ordinary British families.

John Stenson, chairman of the Southend-on-Sea Beach Hut Owners Association, bought his wooden beach hut for 16,700 U.S. dollars six years ago and it is now worth more than double at 38,000 U.S. dollars. It measures just 3.6 meters long and 1.8 meters wide.

"There are more than 500 beach huts in Southend, and being at the mouth of the River Thames it is a great way to watch all the activity, from shipping to windsurfing," Stenson told Xinhua.

"We live just 10 minutes away from our hut on the promenade and it is a good way to enjoy the great outdoors, socializing and just people watching. I am sure owning our own beach hut means me and my wife Valerie, and of course the grandchildren, spend more time at the seaside than we would do otherwise," he said. Endit