THE WEST PIER BRIGHTON

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As you should know Fridays is Funday blog day were we talk anything and everything and pretty much run with it. Today's blog is on The West End Pier in Brighton.

The West Pier is one of two piers in the city of Brighton and Hove on the south eastern English coast, the other being The Brighton Palace pier. The west pier was built during the boom in pleasure pier building in the 1860's, 22 new piers were build across Britain in this decade. The west pier was designed by architect Eugenius Birch as a place for seaside visitors to enjoy fresh seaside air. The pier was contested by rich owners of the regency homes nearby however due to the thought that property prices would go up and the pier was approved. Construction began in 1863 and was completed in 1866 with the grand opening happening on October 6^th.

By the early 20^th century the need for entertainment replaced the urge for the earlier priority of good sea air. The piers attendance was pretty high reaching 1.5 million visitors between 1910 and 1911. attendance fell due to the onset of WW1 (Obviously) before resurging after the war getting up to 2 million people between 1918 and 1919 alone. Competition with the palace pier prompted to the addition of a music hall. It was designed by local architects Clayton and Black. It was opened on April 26^th 1916 with a concert by the King's Royal Rifles silver band, made up of war veterans.

During WW2 the piers central decking was removed to prevent enemy landing, which prompted its decline. On November 26^th 1944 A Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoon fighter hit the pier and crashed onto the beach, the pilot sustained head injuries but survived. The typhoon was one of four aircraft escorting a VIP flight. In the 1950's a funfair was added whilst the convert hall became a tea room and the theatre redesigned as a restaurant though by the 1960's the pier was suffering by financial issues and the company who owned it went into liquidation. The remainder of the pier closed in 1975 and the ownership passed to the Crown estate commissioners.

After 1975 there were several attempts to rebuilt the pier but due to monetary issues that failed to happen. The pier suffered damage due tot he great storm of 1987 and in 1991 access from the shore was removed for safety reasons. In 1998 the national lottery pledged 14 million pounds but the west pier trust who owned the pier since1983 couldn't find a suitable partner for restoration. The palace pier also contested this due to becoming self-sufficient on their own. By 2001 the west pier had become a most at-risk grade 1 listed structure in the UK.

In December 2002 the pier partially collapsed due to a particularly nasty storm in January 2003 what was left of the concert hall fell into the sea leaving the pier very close to collapsing. On March 28^th 2003 the pavilion on the pier head caught fire in what is publicly believed to be arson. The firefighters couldn't reach it due to the piers partial collapse. A secondary fire in May damaged it further, by the end of June the pier was completely closed after strong winds took down a good chink of the remaining pier.

The arrival of the i360 has revived the interest in the west pier and prompted a suggestion of rebuilding by the year 2026 for the 160^th year of the piers original opening. Though by October 2016 it was concluded that restoration of the west pier were it used to be was not the best idea.

THE WEBSITE BIBLIOGRAPHY:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Pier

https://www.westpier.co.uk/history/collapse-and-fire/

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=26640532

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