Exhibitions

BUTLIN'S BOGNOR REGIS The Windsor Grill Room David Noble ŠJohn Hinde Ltd

OUR TRUE INTENT IS ALL FOR YOUR DELIGHT

The John Hinde Butlin's Photographs

December 6th 2003 - January 31st 2004

The Butlin's Story

BUTLIN'S Holiday Camps were conceived by Bily Butlin during a wet holiday week on Barry Island while locked out of his unwelcoming boarding house. He dreamt of a holiday centre for the great mass of working class families, where they could have a good time irrespective of the British weather.

Billy Butlin started his first holiday camps in 1936. On the day after Britain's decleration of war against Germany, he completed negotiations with the Ministry of Defence to build several army training camps around Britain at a discount price - subject to his being able to recover the camps as holiday centres as soon as war was over. Within weeks of VE Day in 1945, Butlin had all nine of his camps open for business and doing a roaring trade. He described his endeavour as a "socail revolution" - and indeed he offered British working people en masse access to glamourous leisure for the first time. The British holiday was never the same again.

Butlin's is a familiar part of British culture and folklore, famous for its hi-de-hi catchphrase, the camp redcoats, the Wakey Wakey breakfast call broadcast across the camps by tannoy, the barbed wire fences (built to stop non-payers getting into the camps, but contributing to their reputation as places of enforced enjoyment), and the hilarious competitions - including Knobbly Knees, Ugly Faces, and Glamourous Grannies.

By the time Butlin sold his empire to the Rank Organisation in 1972, each camp was hosting 1,000 visitors per day. The camps' popularity peaked in 1981, but then declined fast with the growth of cheap package holidays to the Mediterranean. Today there are three Butlin's holiday camps open, having been revamped in the 1990's. They are popular with families during the summer, and busy the rest of the year offering themed short breaks.

Curated by Martin Parr. Produced by Chris Boot.
In Association with Les Rencontres d'Arles

Accompanying Book: OUR TRUE INTENT IS ALL FOR YOUR DELIGHT, The John Hinde Butlin's Photographs
Introduced by Martin Parr. Published in UK/Europe by Chris Boot, May 2003. ISBN 0-9542813-0-6. Price €39.95 Photographs © John Hinde

Press Information:
For press scans or to arrange an interview, please contact: Trish Lambe, 01-671 4654 or email; trish@galleryofphotography.ie