 Eastbourne Pier (June 2018) | |
| Type | Pleasure Pier |
|---|---|
| Locale | Eastbourne, East Sussex |
| Official name | Eastbourne Pier |
| Owner | Abid Gulzar |
| Characteristics | |
| Total length | 1,000 feet (300 m) |
| History | |
| Designer | Eugenius Birch |
| Opening date | 13 June 1870 |
| Coordinates | 50°45′58″N0°17′41″E / 50.7662°N 0.2946°E |
Eastbourne Pier is a seaside pleasure pier in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on the south coast of England.
The proposal for a pier was first mooted at the end of 1863, and highly favoured by the town's major landowner, William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire. It was to have been 1000 feet in length and, at a cost of £12,000, would have been situated at the end of the town's grandest avenue, Devonshire Place. However, the project was delayed and finally abandoned in favour of the present site at the junction of Grand and Marine Parades, thus creating the easterly end of what amounts to a shingle bay. The pier interrupts what would otherwise have been a ribbon development of buildings – to the west, high-class hotels, with modest family hotels and boarding houses to the east. [1]
The Eastbourne Pier Company was registered in April 1865 with a capital of £15,000 [2] and on 18 April 1866 work began. It was opened by Lord Edward Cavendish on 13 June 1870, although it was not actually completed until two years later. [3] On New Year's Day 1877 the landward half was swept away in a storm. It was rebuilt at a higher level, creating a drop towards the end of the pier. The pier is effectively built on stilts that rest in cups on the sea-bed allowing the whole structure to move during rough weather. It is roughly 300 metres (1000 ft) long. A domed 400-seater pavilion was constructed at a cost of £250 at the seaward end in 1888. A 1000-seater theatre, bar, camera obscura and office suite replaced this in 1899/1901. At the same time, two saloons were built midway along the pier. [4] The camera obscura fell into disuse in the 1960s but was restored in 2003 with a new stairway built to provide access. [1]
Paddle steamers (such as the PS Brighton Queen and the PS Devonia) operated by P and A Campbell ran trips from the pier along the south coast, to the Isle of Wight and across the Channel to Boulogne [2] from 1906 until the outbreak of the Second World War. These were resumed after the war, but the paddle steamers were gradually withdrawn from service. In 1957, the final season was operated by a motor vessel.
During the Second World War, part of the decking was removed and machine guns were installed in the theatre providing a useful point from which to repel any attempted enemy landings and a Bofors anti-aircraft gun was sited midway along the length of the pier. [5] In December 1942, an exploding mine caused considerable damage to the pier and nearby hotels; it had been tied to the stanchions by the local police, who were under the mistaken impression that it was fitted with a safety device. In 1943, a detachment of Royal Canadian Engineers fixed camouflage netting over the stanchions to conceal flotillas of small vessels, such as wooden assault landing craft. A George Medal and a British Empire Medal were awarded to two of the engineers who dived into the sea on 3 February 1943 to rescue a comrade who had fallen from a cableway which crossed a 30-foot gap in the structure. [6]
Various traditional pier theatres were built over the years but after the last one was destroyed by fire in 1970, [2] it was replaced by a nightclub and bar which remain to this day. [3] On the landward half of the pier stands a fish and chip kiosk, an amusement arcade and a fast food outlet. Further out, as well as the club there is a cafe, a restaurant, a glassblower, a clothes shop and an ice cream shop. [7] The tower at the end of the pier is often used as a viewing point during the annual air show. For more than a decade, the pier played host to the town's annual Birdman competition, which saw competitors jump into the sea in home-made costumes to see who could 'fly' the furthest. [8]
In May 2009, the listed building status of the pier was upgraded from Grade II to Grade II*. [9] [10]
Six Piers Limited placed Eastbourne Pier up for sale in 2009, with an asking price of £5.5 million. The sale price included a tea room, two bars, an amusement arcade and a nightclub. [11]
On 21 October 2015, Abid Gulzar, a local hotelier, bought the pier for an undisclosed price, although it is believed to be less than £5.5 million. [12] [13] The pier was then fully repaired and reopened.[ when? ]
The pier suffered a fire on 30 July 2014 that ripped through a large amount of the central domed building. Sussex Police initially said that the fire was not to be treated suspiciously, [14] though later the police said arson was suspected. [15]
East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service deployed up to 80 officers to tackle the blaze, which allegedly started in wood panelling in the walls of the games arcade. After fighting the fire through the night, fire officers eliminated the main hotspots and saved two-thirds of the pier with the main arcade being the only large building affected. [16] The outer pavilion was not reached by the fire, which came just two weeks before Eastbourne's largest tourist event on the seafront, the airshow Airbourne. [17]
A few days after the airshow, a 44-year-old workman on the pier fell through the destroyed part and died hours later. [18]
The pier appears in the Agatha Christie's Poirot episode "Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan" (although ostensibly, the story is located in Brighton) and in "Curtain: Poirot's Last Case". It was also featured in the 2001 film Last Orders and the 2008 film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging . [3] The 2010 film Brighton Rock used Eastbourne Pier to stand in for Brighton's Palace Pier. [19]
Eastbourne Town FC supporters club "Pier Pressure" are named in homage to the pier.[ citation needed ]
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Brighton is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the city of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located 47 mi (76 km) south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods. The ancient settlement of "Brighthelmstone" was documented in the Domesday Book (1086). The town's importance grew in the Middle Ages as the Old Town developed, but it languished in the early modern period, affected by foreign attacks, storms, a suffering economy and a declining population. Brighton began to attract more visitors following improved road transport to London and becoming a boarding point for boats travelling to France. The town also developed in popularity as a health resort for sea bathing as a purported cure for illnesses.
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieved university status in 1992.
Littlehampton is a town, seaside resort and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the English Channel on the eastern bank of the mouth of the River Arun. It is 52 miles (84 km) south south-west of London, 19 miles (31 km) west of Brighton and 10 miles (16 km) east of the county town of Chichester.
David Frank Bellotti was a British Liberal Democrat politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Eastbourne constituency from 1990 to 1992.
The International Birdman was a series of English competitions held in the West Sussex towns of Bognor Regis, Selsey and Worthing. The competition involved human 'birdmen' attempting to fly off the end of a pier into the sea for prize money. The event began in 1971 and was held on piers in West Sussex, on the south coast of England. First held in Selsey, the event moved to Bognor Regis in 1978. In 2008 and 2009 the competition relocated to Worthing Pier due to renovations of Bognor Regis Pier. From 2010 Bognor Regis and Worthing have both held Birdman competition, forming the International Birdman Series, which ended in 2016. It was the longest running Birdman Rally in the world.
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The West Pier is a ruined pier in Brighton, England. It was designed by Eugenius Birch and opened in 1866. It was the first pier to be Grade I listed in England but has become increasingly derelict since its closure to the public in 1975. As of 2023 only a partial metal framework remains.
Brighton City Airport, also commonly known as Shoreham Airport, is located in the parish of Lancing in West Sussex, England. It has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.
The Brighton Palace Pier, commonly known as Brighton Pier or the Palace Pier, is a Grade II* listed pleasure pier in Brighton, England, located in the city centre opposite the Old Steine. Established in 1899, it was the third pier to be constructed in Brighton after the Royal Suspension Chain Pier and the West Pier, but is now the only one still in operation. It is managed and operated by the Eclectic Bar Group.
The Royal Suspension Chain Pier was the first major pier built in Brighton, England. Opened on 25 November 1823, it was destroyed during a storm on 4 December 1896.
Worthing Pier is a public pleasure pier in Worthing, West Sussex, England. Designed by Sir Robert Rawlinson, it was opened on 12 April 1862 and remains open to the public. The pier originally was a simple promenade deck 960 ft (290 m) long and 15 ft (4.6 m) wide. In 1888 the pier was upgraded with the width increased to 30 ft (9.1 m) and the pier head increased to 105 ft (32 m) for a 650-seat pavilion to be built. It is a Grade II listed building structure.
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Eastbourne is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, 19 miles (31 km) east of Brighton and 54 miles (87 km) south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the larger Eastbourne Downland Estate.
Eastbourne Airbourne, also known as the Eastbourne International Airshow, is a 4-day international air show run every August in Eastbourne, East Sussex, England. The event features Battle of Britain memorial flights and aircraft from the RAF and USAF, among others, and enjoys a long relationship with the Red Arrows display team.
The London Road Viaduct is a brick railway viaduct in Brighton, part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England. It carries the East Coastway Line between Brighton and London Road railway stations. Built in the 1840s for the Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway by the locomotive engineer and railway architect John Urpeth Rastrick, the sharply curving structure has 27 arches and about 10 million bricks. It is still in constant use, and is listed at Grade II* for its historical and architectural significance.
There are more than 130 listed buildings in the town and borough of Eastbourne, a seaside resort on the coast of East Sussex in England. Eastbourne, whose estimated population in 2011 was 99,400, grew from a collection of farming hamlets into a fashionable holiday destination in the mid-19th century; close attention was paid to urban planning and architecture, and the main landowners the Dukes of Devonshire placed restrictions on the types and locations of development. As a result, much of the resort retains its "basic motif" of late Regency and early Victorian houses, hotels and similar buildings, and also has an extensive stock of 19th-century churches. Coastal fortifications have been strategically important for centuries, and structures such as Martello towers and fortresses have survived to be granted listed status. A few older buildings—priories, manor houses and the ancient parish church—are also spread throughout the borough, whose boundaries take in the dramatic cliffs at Beachy Head and its two listed lighthouses.
On 22 August 2015, a former military aircraft crashed onto a main road during an aerial display at the Shoreham Airshow at Shoreham Airport, England, killing 11 people and injuring 16 others. It was the deadliest air show accident in the United Kingdom since the 1952 Farnborough Airshow crash, which had killed 31 people.
Sport in Sussex forms an important part of the culture of Sussex. With a centuries-long tradition of sport, Sussex has played a key role in the early development of both cricket and stoolball. Cricket is recognised as having been formed in the Weald and Sussex CCC is England's oldest county cricket club. Slindon Cricket Club dominated the sport for a while in the 18th century. The cricket ground at Arundel Castle traditionally plays host to a Duchess of Norfolk's XI which plays the national test sides touring England. The sport of stoolball is also associated with Sussex, which has a claim to be where the sport originated and certainly where its revival took place in the early 20th century. Sussex is represented in the Premier League by Brighton & Hove Albion and in the Football League by Crawley Town. Brighton has been in the Premier League since 2017 and has been a League member since 1920, whereas Crawley was promoted to the League in 2011. Brighton & Hove Albion W.F.C. play in the FA Women's Super League from 2017. Sussex has had its own football association, since 1882 and its own football league, which has since expanded into Surrey, since 1920. In horse racing, Sussex is home to Goodwood, Fontwell Park, Brighton and Plumpton. The All England Jumping Course show jumping facility at Hickstead is situated 8 miles (13 km) north of Brighton and Hove.
The Claremont Hotel was a hotel in Eastbourne, East Sussex, United Kingdom, overlooking the Carpet Gardens, near Eastbourne Pier. The hotel was destroyed by a large fire on 22 November 2019.
