Postcards from Scheveningen – A Plea to revive the Scheveningen High Back Beach Chair (Dutch Design 47)

in Dutch Design,Germany,Netherlands,Scheveningen,The Hague,Things to do

Postcard of Scheveningen Beach dating before 1900

Scheveningen is a suburb of The Hague and the main beach resort of The Netherlands.

1906 Postcard - Scheveningen beach with the Kurhaus

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:

1. 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.
2. They offered you a nice feel of privacy: No strangers’ eyes burning in your back.

Dreamy Scheveningen Beach Postcard - Undated

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:

Postcard from a recent G8 Top

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?