Kmflett's Blog

The Marxist Staycation. Marx & Engels at the Victorian seaside in 1857

Ryde,Isle of Wight 1857 (copies from Welland Antique)

With the Government’s chaotic handling of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, suddenly announcing changes late at night on twitter,  the attractiveness of a summer break in Britain, for those still able to afford it, has more attraction than usual.

The August weather is notoriously unreliable but for socialists there is a chance to visit some of the locations that Marx and Engels enjoyed in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Not quite all are by the sea. There are references in the correspondence to Buxton, then a major spa town, and within reach of Manchester for example.

A central part of the reason for Marx and Engels quite frequent trips to various English seaside destinations was however health related- escaping the extremely unhealthy environments of mid-Victorian London and Manchester

In the summer of 1857 Engels was unwell and took time off from the Manchester factory to seek a cure by the seaside. He started at Waterloo near Liverpool. He avoided the Isle of Man at the urging of Marx but also ignored his suggestion of Hastings. By early September he was in Ryde, Isle of Wight where he stayed for several weeks. He then headed to Brighton and from there to Jersey, returning in October. Some Marxist Staycation.

Marx wrote to Engels in Manchester on 14th July 1857

If nothing else, the whole course of your illness should have shown you that what you needed physically was to rest, recuperate and temporarily shake off the dust of the office. You must go to the seaside as soon as possible.

A fortnight later Engels had actually made it to the seaside to Waterloo a location not far from the major holiday resort of Southport. Engels reported to Marx:

Here I am last by the seaside… It’s 3 miles beyond New Brighton but to the north of the Mersey.. I hope that the sea air will soon make me fit again for the usual drudgery.

Two weeks later still on 15^th August Marx was urging Engels to move beyond taking in the sea air and actually go for a paddle. On 21^st August Engels confirmed to Marx that he had done so.

I am delighted to hear that the sea is doing you good, as was to be expected. As soon as you are fit enough to bathe, It will take effect even more quickly, noted Marx

The delights of Waterloo were apparently limited however as by 25^th August 1857 Engels was planning a return to Manchester with the aim of going shortly after that to a ‘more bracing seaside resort’. He had in mind the Isle of Man which he had visited with Marx before

Marx was not impressed with this plan and wrote immediately to suggest a seaside resort in southern England:

Why not go to Hastings which is famed for its efficacy in cases like yours. It’s the only specific watering-place of the kind in England. The Isle of Man.. is remarkable chiefly for its stench

Engels however ignored Marx’s guide to holiday destinations and headed instead to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, which became a favourite destination in the years to come. It was not a good start though as Engels complained that he had, ‘finally arrived today at my new lodgings in the middle of a frightful downpour’.

In the years to come Marx was often to be found in Margate and Ramsgate and in his last years Ventnor. Engels by contrast came to like Eastbourne so much that he bought a house there near the pier.

The message for Marxists this summer is surely clear. Get into the sea, the water’s lovely on the English south coast….

This post originally appeared in the Morning Star