Eastbourne Pier

Eastbourne Pier

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″N 0°17′41″E / 50.7662°N 0.2946°E / 50.7662; 0.2946

Eastbourne Pier is a seaside pleasure pier in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on the south coast of England.

History

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]

During the

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?]

Fire

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]

A few days after the airshow, a 44-year-old workman on the pier fell through the destroyed part and died hours later.[18]

In popular culture

The pier appears in the

Eastbourne Town FC supporters club "Pier Pressure" are named in homage to the pier.^{[citation needed}

]

Awards

• 1997 – National Piers Society – Pier of the Year

Gallery

• 
  Eastbourne Pier
• 
  Etching from 1870
• 
  Summer 1996
• 
  View from the Downs
• 
  The pier's tower with its camera obscura

See also

• Listed buildings in Eastbourne

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Crook, Richard (Spring 2010). "Eastbourne Pier — Past, present and future". The Eastbourne Society Observer (182): 10.
2. ^
   ISBN 1-86077-226-9
   .
3. ^ ^{a b c} Fire rips through Eastbourne Pier, BBC News, 30 July 2014
4. ^ "English Seaside Piers — Eastbourne Pier". English Heritage Trail. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
5. ^ Hardy, N W (1945). Eastbourne 1939–1945. Eastbourne: Strange the Printer. p. 64.
6. ISBN 978-0-9547647-4-6
7. ^ "Eastbourne Pier, Pier Retail". Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
8. ^ "Birdman contest grounded". Brighton Argus. 27 July 2005.
9. ^ "Status of listed pier is upgraded". BBC News. 8 May 2009.
10. ^ Culture Archived 15 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
11. ^ Shearing, Caroline (9 June 2009). "Eastbourne Pier up for sale". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
12. ^ "BBC South East Today". BBC One S East. 21 October 2015. Event occurs at 18:42.
13. ^ "Pier Sale decision to be revealed this week". Eastbourne Gazette. 20 October 2015. p. 3.
14. ^ "Fire rips through Eastbourne Pier". BBC News. 30 July 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
15. ^ "Eastbourne Pier blaze: Arson probe launched by police". BBC News. 1 August 2014.
16. ^ "Eastbourne Pier fire: Firefighters save two-thirds of structure". BBC News. 31 July 2014.
17. ^ "Eastbourne pier latest to be swallowed by fire". The Daily Telegraph. 8 May 2009.
18. ^ "Eastbourne Pier fall workman named as Stephen Penrice". BBC News. 20 August 2014.
19. ^ Kennedy, Maev. "Brighton's Palace Pier withdrawn from sale by owners". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 July 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eastbourne Pier.

• History of the pier

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Not awarded	National Piers Society Pier of the Year 1997	Succeeded by Brighton Palace Pier