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In the year 1931, at the opening of the^2nd harbour, the inhabitants of Scheveningen donated to the municipality.

The Lelybank, in which this text is chiselled, was designed by the Scheveningen architect Cornelis van Duyne. The monument stands just in front of the harbour master's signal box and was erected to commemorate the expansion of the harbour in 1931. The bench owes its name to the engineer under whose supervision the first harbour was constructed: doctor Cornelis Lely (1854-1929), better known for the Afsluitdijk.

This first harbour was completed in 1904 as a safe haven for the fishing vessels of the day. A terrible storm had destroyed a large part of the fleet on the beach at Scheveningen ten years earlier. Expansion soon proved necessary. A harbour was added: the second harbour, where smaller cutters and sailing yachts are moored. On the harbour head, the monument offers a view of the North Sea and incoming ships. Decades later, it is still used for resting, chatting and watching.

The style of the bench fits into the tradition in which monuments and statues were designed in the 1930s. Austere and sober design, symmetrical construction and the use of materials such as brick, wood and natural stone are characteristics of this period. This makes the bench an example of Art Deco (1918-1939), an art form that followed Jugendstil or Art Nouveau with its plant motifs and whipping lines.

Van Duyne worked in both styles. In the early twentieth century, he built houses in Jugendstil. Around 1920, he switched to Art Deco. Van Duyne's two memorials in Scheveningen, the Lelybank and the Vissersmonument, were built in this style.