Description
The emergence throughout late summer 2025 of St. George and Union flags hoisted up neighbourhood lamp posts and hung from motorway bridges held various meanings and interpretations: as a symbolic reclamation of space and identity for their protagonists, and as a source of hostility and intimidation for minority ethnic and migrant communities. Such public flag-flying is less novel in the nation’s seaside towns, where these and other assertive performances of nationhood, xenophobia and racism have long been a common aspect of coastal vistas and experiences. This presentation explores this phenomenon, situating the English seaside as a place of racism, but also one of increasing multiculture with the potential for more progressive and inclusive articulations of identity.
