The seaside memorial bench

Charles 9 Comments
Charles

 

Ken West thinks the seaside memorial bench a peculiarly English thing. Is it? The GFG simply doesn’t get out enough to know. Do our continental friends and neighbours commemorate their LOs in this way?

Ken also observes that seaside promenades are becoming very popular for the strewing of mortal cremains — often so thickly it take weeks for them to disappear.

Apols for the poor cropping of some pics. The software’s free so we mustn’t complain.

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Phoebe Hoare
Phoebe Hoare
11 years ago

I thought memorial benches in general was very British; haven’t noticed them on my travels elsewhere. Eating fish and chips (and getting sunburnt) on a memorial bench by the sea is about as English as you can get!

Charles Cowling
11 years ago
Reply to  Phoebe Hoare

None in Ireland, Phoebe?

Phoebe Hoare
Phoebe Hoare
11 years ago

I’d forgotten about Ireland! I suppose there must be.

Richard
Richard
11 years ago

It’s small subjects like this that make GFG so compulsive and thought-provoking. There are memorial benches in many places from Paris parks to Washington boulevards but the seaside bench may well be distinctly English. However, I doubt it’s an exclusive phenomenon. I think Canada has a few, for example. I love them: simple and functional things deliberately placed to enjoy a view, and yet reminding all of private individuals who went before, and the love bestowed on them by those close to them. Such intimate gestures tell a story of ‘little’ lives just as much as public memorials such as… Read more »

Phoebe Hoare
Phoebe Hoare
11 years ago

I’m clearly not as observant as I thought I

Phoebe Hoare
Phoebe Hoare
11 years ago

…was!

Evelyn
11 years ago

I saw a wonderful memorial avenue of trees in Kings Park, looking over the Swan River, Perth, Australia – each dedicated to soldiers lost in battle. You could sit under them if not on them! I was walking in my local forest the other day and came upon a memorial bench to a beloved lady. It was lovely to sit down and think about her, and who she may have been and what she may have done, and the husband who had placed it at the crossroads. Connections to the past, present and future, encouraging us to stop for a… Read more »

Phoebe Hoare
Phoebe Hoare
11 years ago

Avenue of trees is a lovely idea.

Charles Cowling
11 years ago

Communing with the dead in the present has definitely got to be an emotionally healthy thing to do.