It was not exactly what the TV crews, newspaper reporters and dozens of onlookers had in mind as they waited on Brighton seafront for the opening of Britain’s first nudist beach.
As the countdown began to the new dawn of UK naturism, heads strained and cameras got into position to see who would make history by baring all. At 7.30am on the cold and wet morning of April 2, 1980, Arthur Albrow, 61, took off his long johns and trudged naked across the shingly beach, letting out a gasp as he entered the icy sea.
The moment was underwhelming but a victorious end to the long fight for the right to be naked in public. Today, seven million people visit the UK’s dozens of public nudist sites.
But when councillors voted to allow the first nudist beach, 45 years ago, the decision was met with controversy The council vote was passed in August 1979, thanks to Tory councillor Eileen Jakes, 47, who handed around photographs of herself bathing topless in Ibiza. “I came into the world with nothing on and I will go out with nothing on. Why should I be ashamed of nudity?”, the grandmother said.
Eileen with the nudist beach sign (Daily Mirror)She responded to a call by the Central Council for British Naturism, which petitioned 140 local authorities for a nudist beach. As landlady of a beachfront pub, she argued having a beach in Britain for nude bathers - rather than them travelling to Spain - would boost local tourism.
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Tory councillor John Blackman opposed it while OAPs staged protests, claiming the 200-yard stretch of beach, near Brighton’s pier, would “attract perverts and voyeurs”.
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But Ms Jakes said: “Brighton is totally out of touch. It’s time Brighton took the lead and gave their facility to these people, because we’re here to make money.”
A nudist with a friend on the beach
Councillor John Blackman protesting the beach (Graham Wood/ANL/REX/Shutterstock)Mr Blackman warned nude bathing was a degenerate slope, lambasting the “flagrant exhibition of mammary glands” just yards from the pier. He said: “I personally have got no objection to people showing their breasts and bosoms and general genitalia to one another. But, for heaven’s sake, they should go somewhere more private.”
The naked bathers made international news. Even a French TV crew turned up. Residents in the suburb of Kemptown, objected to nudists on the beach below. Others complained the 200-yard stretch was too close to a playground, while women from a church regularly turned up with banners.
Eileen fought for the beach to open and had passed around pictures of herself nude abroad (EVENING NEWS)Resident Brett Hoskins said: “It was disappointing to find there were no naked young lovelies there, but only old men, naked except for shoes and socks”. John Goddard, an ex-driver of the Volk’s Railway that runs along the seafront, recalled old ladies wanting him to point nudists out when they passed.
A pebble mound was later built to protect nudists and passersby. There have been recent complaints the beach is used almost exclusively by men. But local Bella Kirkus and councillors are looking at ways to encourage women back to the beach, “as a jewel in our crown rather than a dirty corner.” She said: “The nudist beach is such a unique place.”
Hopefully, it will forever remain as a fitting tribute to Ms Jakes, who died in 2008.She was photographed naked on the beach in 2004 and robustly maintained the nudist beach “brought an immense amount of custom to Brighton.”
The first users were predominantly middle aged menShe said: “Brighton is a combination of the ritzy and the risque. It’s grand, and it can be a bit grubby as well, and that’s part of its charm. And it’s odd, there’s nowhere else like it.
Ms Jakes’ stepdaughter Lisa, 58, was 14 when the nudist beach opened, while she was still married to her father Ken Jakes, now aged 83. She says: “She was immensely proud of what she achieved, she talked about it well into her later years.
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“Of course it wasn’t the done thing for a Conservative, or even for Brighton at that time. But she was different, she was flamboyant and outrageous, and she really made the most of life, you had to meet her to believe it. I remember some great times with her, like once doing cabaret together at Brighton Pavilion. She loved singing, dancing, holidays, and especially getting her kit off.
“When she won the campaign for the nudist beach the whole family was proud, I remember bragging it to my friends at school. Eileen came from meagre beginnings, she grew up in a poor part of Brighton, and used to get her boyfriend to drop her off in the posh part and then she’d have to walk home. But she died multimillionairess. In her latter ears she had a pub in Hove, and served behind the bar way into her 80s.”
She thinks Eileen’s main motivation for starting the first nudist beach in Britain so she could use it herself. She says: “She was a naturist herself, she embraced the human body and she loved skimpy bikinis. Even in her 40s she had an amazing body and was immensely proud of it.
“She wanted to show it off, but until then she would have to go abroad for that. She really wanted to be able to do it on her local beach.”
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