I fell in love with this pier when I first saw it used as a backdrop for some of the photos in the photo supplement that accompanied The Who’s Quadrophenia double album.
The elegant, Grade I listed pier with its trademark neon ‘WEST PIER’ lettering on the concert hall had brought pleasure to millions over the years, but, sadly, I never got to walk on its wooden promenades.
[December 1973 view – Wikipedia]
[1993 view]
Designed and engineered by Eugenius Birch, Brighton’s West Pier opened in 1866 as a simple promenade pier.
Over the years, it developed into a fully-fledged seaside entertainment destination, offering a theatre, concert hall, pavilion, bandstand, shops and steamer landing stages.
[Sept 2001]
After the second world war, the West Pier slumped into decline.
With Brits preferring Sombreros and Sangria to Double Diamond and Kiss Me Quick hats, the neglected pier fell into disrepair, and was declared unsafe and closed to the public in 1975.
Locals immediately launched a battle to revive the pier, and after the granting of a £14.2m Lottery award in 1998, there was real hope that this beautiful old pier would return to life.
The grant came through despite robust challenges from the nearby Palace Pier who, I imagine, weren’t exactly wailing into their beer when the south east corner of the Concert Hall fell into the sea after a huge storm in December 2002, swiftly followed by two dodgy arson attacks in 2003.
[Feb 2002]
[Jan 2003]
The pier seen shortly after the calamitous collapse of the Concert Hall.
Although the damage to the Concert Hall was critical, the Pavilion remained in relatively good condition.
On 28th March 2003 the Pavilion was destroyed in an arson attack, and when the Concert Hall also was burnt out deliberately on 11th May 2003, any hope of restoring the pier to its former glory was lost.
[Photo: Wikipedia]
[Oct 2003]
More about the West Pier:
Part two: Further decline and a collapse into the sea
Part three: End of the pier and its i360 successor
Related posts:
Remembering the Brighton West Pier in photos, part two
Brighton 2002: West Pier and a shop window piled full of books
Brighton West Pier sunset – photos of the autumnal sun setting over the doomed Victorian pier
The tragedy of Brighton’s West Pier
The tragedy of West Pier, Brighton beach, Brighton
Brighton’s West Pier in 2014 – Victorian elegance rusts into the sea
Brighton’s derelict West Pier in the winter sun and storms – in photos
The Brighton i360 tower: ‘successor’ to the West Pier
I still like to hope that the West Pier will rise again, even at this late stage. If the Medway Queen Paddle Steamer can get a grant for a new hull why can’t the West Pier get one for a new superstructure. It would be a massive tourist attraction if it were themed as a Victorian pier complete with gardens and an end of pier Victorian theatre.
While I doubt that the West Pier will ever be restored I do hope that at least the structure remains standing. I cannot envisage Brighton without a West Pier. And nobody in Brighton wants the i360 tower. I see the tower as an eye sore!
Thanks for the history of West Pier, even since it’s neglect, then storm damage and the fire, it’s still standing. In my humble opinion it still shows the magnificence of engineering in 1866, I,m sure Eugenius Birch the man who built it was a proud man, I hope they leave it standing as a relic for us all to see and i’m sure appreciate, as in my mind Brighton would not be the same without West Pier.