背景介绍：
英国海滨小镇，以其独特的海滨风情与丰富的文化遗产闻名遐迩。从经典的游乐场码头到地道的炸鱼和薯条，再到历史悠久的潘趣与朱迪木偶戏，每一处都散发着独特的魅力。在这片充满故事的海岸线上，色彩斑斓的海滨小屋尤为引人注目，它们不仅是家庭的避风港，更是英国海滨文化的重要象征。近年来，随着旅游热潮的兴起和人们对传统海滨度假的怀念，这些小屋的价格不断攀升，成为稀缺而昂贵的资产，其背后的故事与文化价值也愈发引人深思。
Why are
British beach huts so expensive?
为什么英国的沙滩小屋这么贵？
Scarcity and sentimentality drive the market
稀缺和怀旧情怀推动市场
British seaside towns contribute more than their fair share of the country’s iconography: fairground piers, fish and chips, Punch and Judy puppet shows.
英国的海滨小镇，以其独特的魅力，为这个国家编织了一幅幅标志性的风景线：游乐场码头洋溢着欢声笑语，炸鱼和薯条散发着诱人的香气，而潘趣与朱迪木偶戏则传承着悠久的文化记忆。
High on that list are beach huts—those “colourful sentinels on the border between land and sea”, in the words of Kathryn Ferry, a historian and co-founder of the Seaside Heritage Network, which campaigns for a renewed appreciation of the country’s often-faded coastal resorts.
在这片风景中，海滨小屋以其独特的姿态傲立潮头，被海滨遗产网（该组织致力于唤醒人们对英国那些虽历经风霜却魅力不减的海滨度假胜地的热爱与欣赏）的历史学家兼联合创始人凯瑟琳·费里深情地誉为“陆地与海洋边界上色彩缤纷的哨兵”。
Beach huts are small wooden sheds, often painted in bright pastels, lined side-by-side up and down the British coast. They’re changing rooms, kitchenettes, storage spaces and shelters all in one, with a typical footprint of around six foot by six foot.
这些沙滩小屋，沿着蜿蜒的海岸线错落有致地排列，每一栋都被精心漆上鲜艳的淡色调，宛如海边的点点明珠。它们不仅是更衣室与小厨房的集合体，更是储物间与避风港的完美结合，虽仅占地约六平方英尺，却承载着无数家庭的欢乐与回忆。
They may look like a large box, but their price tag tells a different story. Owning one, particularly in sought-after corners of Dorset or Suffolk, is absurdly expensive.
尽管外观看似简单如大盒子，其背后的价值却千差万别，尤其是在多塞特或萨福克等热门地区，拥有一间小屋已成为奢侈的象征，价格之高昂令人咋舌。
In 2012 incredulous newspaper headlines reported the sale of a hut on Mudeford Spit in Christchurch, a town on England’s south coast, for £170,000 ($270,000 at the time).
2012年，一则轰动一时的新闻报道了英格兰南海岸基督城莫德福德角上一间小屋以惊人的17万英镑（当时约合27万美元）成交的佳话。
Now a local estate agent is advertising several for nearly triple that price. Unlike most such places, the Mudeford huts can be slept in, but even the most expensive one, listed at just under half a million pounds, has no running water.
时至今日，该地区的房地产经纪人更是以近乎三倍于此的价格，为几间小屋挂出了诱人的广告牌。值得注意的是，莫德福德的小屋虽具备住宿功能，但即便是标价近50万英镑的豪华小屋，也未能配备自来水。
Elsewhere, the cost is less eye-popping but hardly a steal. Renting one of the 250 or so huts along Westbrook Bay in Margate, a gentrifying town on the south-eastern English coast, costs up to £1,400 for the spring and summer. “They’re not cheap,” says Trish Moore, a bay inspector picking litter off the sand on a recent Saturday.
转向英格兰东南部海岸的滨海马盖特镇，那里的西布鲁克湾拥有约250间小屋，成为游客竞相追逐的热门之选。春季与夏季，租用这些小屋的费用可高达1400英镑，价格不菲。周末在沙滩上忙碌的海湾检查员特丽什·摩尔在捡拾垃圾时感慨道：“它们确实不便宜。”
Users of the Margate huts have to vacate by sundown, and the huts are moved into storage over the winter. The years-long waiting list for a seasonal hire is currently closed to new applicants. Shorter-term lets for peak times book out a year in advance.
马盖特小屋的使用规则严格而独特，使用者必须在日落前撤离，小屋则在冬季被妥善移入仓库保存。目前，长期季节性租赁的席位已满，对新申请人关闭了大门，而高峰时段的短期租赁则需提前一年预订。
Even so, all but a few of the huts were padlocked when your correspondent visited. “It just amazes me that people are prepared to pay out that amount, and then just not really use them,” says Ms Moore.
本刊记者探访时，除少数几间小屋外，其余均大门紧锁，空无一人。摩尔表示：“我惊讶的是，人们愿意支付如此高昂的费用，却并未充分利用它们。”
Why spend so much for a shack on the sand? Supply is very restricted, for one. Local councils limit the construction of new ones, so as not to spoil the view.
那么，究竟是什么驱使人们愿意在沙滩上投入巨资购买这些看似简陋的小屋呢？首要原因无疑是供应的极度稀缺。地方政府出于保护景观的考虑，严格限制新建小屋的数量，导致市场供需失衡。
Huts rarely come onto the market: they are handed down between generations and become yearly meeting places for communities of families. Ask owners, though, and they’ll also use words like “quintessential” and “iconic”, describing beach huts as part of the fabric of Britain’s history.
小屋的流通性也极低，它们往往在家族间代代相传，成为维系亲情的纽带与年度聚会的圣地。对于小屋的主人而言，“典型”与“标志性”是对它们最贴切的形容，它们不仅是物质上的财产，更是英国海滨文化不可或缺的一部分。
A Quaker in Margate is said to have invented the precursor to beach huts in the 18th century. The bathing machine was a wooden box on wagon wheels with a staircase descending from the front door.
追溯历史，马盖特与沙滩小屋的渊源颇深。据传，18世纪时，一位马盖特的贵格会教徒发明了沙滩小屋的前身——沐浴机。
A horse drew it out to sea, where swimmers could privately step out and into the water under a pull-down canvas umbrella. A few dunks in cold seawater were said to be curative, which explains why the use of bathing machines spread among the affluent. Queen Victoria had one specially designed; she used it for dips during holidays on the Isle of Wight.
这是一种装有楼梯、固定在马车轮子上的木质盒子，一匹马拉着它缓缓出海，游泳者可在拉下的帆布伞下，通过前门走下楼梯，享受私密的入海体验。在那个时代，人们相信冰冷的海水具有治疗疾病的神奇功效，因此沐浴机在富人阶层中广受欢迎。就连维多利亚女王也未能免俗，她特制了一辆沐浴机，在怀特岛度假时用于泡澡，享受海水的恩赐。
Eventually, however, the horses were dispensed with and the wheels disappeared. Stationary huts multiplied and became available to working-class holidaymakers, who had won the right in the 1930s to paid time off. By the 1970s, when air travel to sunnier spots abroad had become more affordable, beach huts were relatively cheap.
然而，随着时代的变迁，沐浴机逐渐退出了历史舞台，取而代之的是固定的小屋。这些小屋逐渐向工人阶级度假者开放，尤其是在20世纪30年代，随着带薪休假制度的普及，它们成为了工人阶级享受海滨乐趣的重要场所。到了20世纪70年代，随着飞往国外阳光海滩的航班变得经济实惠，海滩小屋的相对价格优势愈发凸显。
But particularly this century, prices have “only gone one way”, says Dominic Parravani of Durrants estate agents in Southwold, a mecca for huts on the Suffolk coast. Prices jumped further during the covid-19 pandemic, as people took more holidays in Britain and many families decided to move out of big cities.
但进入本世纪以来，小屋的价格却呈现出“只涨不跌”的态势，特别是在如萨福克海岸绍斯沃尔德市这样的热门地区，据当地杜兰茨房地产经纪人多米尼克·帕拉瓦尼介绍，小屋价格更是屡创新高。而在新冠肺炎疫情的催化下，随着人们更倾向于在国内度假，许多家庭选择逃离大城市，寻求海滨的宁静与自由，这进一步推高了小屋的市场价格。
重难点词汇：
sentimentality [ˌsentɪmenˈtæləti] n. 多愁善感；伤感；感情用事
incredulous [ɪnˈkredʒələs] adj. 怀疑的；难以置信的；不信任的
vacate [ˈveɪkeɪt] v. 搬出；腾出；空出
dispense [dɪˈspens] v. 分发；提供；配药；免除；豁免
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