Rebuilding A Pier
Opened on Monday 5 August 1872 to coincide with the first bank holiday, Hastings Pier was designed by one of the most innovative engineers of the period, Eugenius Birch. Having provided the nation with the Devon and Somerset Railway and the Empire with the Calcutta to Delhi line, Birch became obsessed with linking the land and the sea in a seamless union that would allow for pleasure and peaceful enjoyment – he designed 14 piers in total. Mercifully he was long dead by the time the Mods and Rockers had their infamous battle on the boardwalk in the summer of 1964.
Hastings Pier was formally opened (in a roaring gale) by the Earl of Granville and followed by a slap-up dinner of lobster, roast fowl and blancmange, served in the new pavilion for 630 of the town’s wealthiest residents (it cost four shillings per head). In his after-dinner speech the Earl told the assembled dignitaries: ‘This pier, if I may so use the phrase, appears to me to be a peerless pier – a pier without a peer – except, perhaps, the unfortunate peer who is now addressing you.’
Birch’s design was an immediate success, attracting 482,000 people in its first year and 584,000 in the second. Entry cost 2d, bringing £4,000 income – a sixth of the capital cost – in just 12 months.
Despite the constant lashing from the high storms, the 910ft structure clung on – although a middle section was temporarily removed during the Second World War to stop the Germans using it as a landing platform. In the 1960s, its tripod-shaped ballroom changed the face of popular culture when it became known as a place for up-and-coming bands to play. The Rolling Stones appeared four times, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Hollies, and Pink Floyd – the last time that Syd Barrett played with the band.
But by the time Sir John Betjeman founded The National Piers Society in 1979, Hastings was little more than an eyesore covered in tacky arcades churning out pink floss and slot machines churning out very little. It is unclear what motivated the arsonists who finally did for the pier on the evening of 5 October 2010, but it was reduced to a warped iron skeleton.
However, there is hope for this Hastings landmark with a £11.4m Lottery award providing the lion’s share of the £13.9m needed. The Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust are naturally ecstatic. Chief Executive Simon Opie has said that work will start in the spring and the pier will reopen in spring 2014. As someone who is still struggling after a year to fit a sewage connection in a small domestic house, I wish him well.
Next week: Doggy business
Hastings Pier was formally opened (in a roaring gale) by the Earl of Granville and followed by a slap-up dinner of lobster, roast fowl and blancmange, served in the new pavilion for 630 of the town’s wealthiest residents (it cost four shillings per head). In his after-dinner speech the Earl told the assembled dignitaries: ‘This pier, if I may so use the phrase, appears to me to be a peerless pier – a pier without a peer – except, perhaps, the unfortunate peer who is now addressing you.’
Birch’s design was an immediate success, attracting 482,000 people in its first year and 584,000 in the second. Entry cost 2d, bringing £4,000 income – a sixth of the capital cost – in just 12 months.
Despite the constant lashing from the high storms, the 910ft structure clung on – although a middle section was temporarily removed during the Second World War to stop the Germans using it as a landing platform. In the 1960s, its tripod-shaped ballroom changed the face of popular culture when it became known as a place for up-and-coming bands to play. The Rolling Stones appeared four times, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Hollies, and Pink Floyd – the last time that Syd Barrett played with the band.
But by the time Sir John Betjeman founded The National Piers Society in 1979, Hastings was little more than an eyesore covered in tacky arcades churning out pink floss and slot machines churning out very little. It is unclear what motivated the arsonists who finally did for the pier on the evening of 5 October 2010, but it was reduced to a warped iron skeleton.
However, there is hope for this Hastings landmark with a £11.4m Lottery award providing the lion’s share of the £13.9m needed. The Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust are naturally ecstatic. Chief Executive Simon Opie has said that work will start in the spring and the pier will reopen in spring 2014. As someone who is still struggling after a year to fit a sewage connection in a small domestic house, I wish him well.
Next week: Doggy business