Scheveningen is a suburb of The Hague and the main beach resort of The Netherlands.
Since we enjoy a wonderful summer here in the Hague, I’m remembering the typical good old cane High Back Scheveningen Beach Chair that used to be all over the Scheveningen beaches. These chairs disappeared completely from the Scheveningen Beach scene in the 70ies.
One problem was that they are very heavy. You need two persons to move them. The second problem is they were a bit unstable. With a bit of wind, they are easily blown over.
However, they had two huge advantages:
- Wind protection.
By their design they already offered a nice protection against the wind. If you added a towel inside in the back the protection was complete. - They offered you a nice feel of privacy: No strangers’ eyes burning in your back.
I’ve grabbed some historic postcard pictures from the internet to make my point while I was in search of modern equivalents for this wonderful beach chair, but couldn’t find a decent one. That is strange as the modern materials for outdoor chairs are so flexible. High Back beach chairs still do have a function as the following postcard fro a German Beach proves:
A recent G 8 top postcard with several World Leaders on a Northern German beach in its own model of a high back beach chair. It is much heavier, hence it is not feasible for Scheveningen where you have to adapt to the wind direction frequently, but a swiveling high back maybe?
So Chair designers out there: If the Germans can do this, why can’t the Dutch do this?
this is SO COOL! i just finished a cool book about beaches – the history of them, and the culture around them. it was so much fun! i don’t know if i saw any cool chairs like this. i’d love it – i get sunburned in an instant and so usually don’t stay on the beach until around sunset.
~A nice alternative to the beach chaise.
The chairs look cool and so does the G8 top postcard. A really interesting information, thanks for sharing 🙂
I would get one of those for my house in an instant. I actually have one similar, but it’s like a swing! Although, the G8 don’t look all that comfortable:)