14 July 2106
Fading Icons – The End of The Pier Show
Now to go up rather than out.
by J.R.Thomas
Many congratulations to Cleethorpes Pier. In a piece of exciting news which seems to have been overlooked, what with all the excitement of referendum results and political party leadership contests (or not), Cleethorpes Pier has been voted “Pier of the Year”.
To avoid any confusion we should make it clear that this does not relate to Viscount Thurso, who perhaps should be Peer of the Year, having recently won a remarkable election victory amongst Liberal Democrat peers by defeating six other contenders. There only are three Liberal Democrat hereditary peers in the Lords, so there were a number of disappointed candidates. Sadly though, no Peer of the Year award for Lord Thurso, or for the eponymous seaside town of Thurso, which has no pier.
But let us praise Cleethorpes Pier, which has proudly graced that draughty but charming North Sea resort since opening on 4th August 1873. On its first day, 2,859 people paid 4d each to walk along its length – just over a fifth of a mile – or 6d by those confined to bath chairs – none of that molly-coddling of the frail or disabled then. It was originally, in that great Victorian tradition, a private enterprise, and a profitable one, with much business being obtained from the myriad inhabitants of Midland and Yorkshire towns who made their way each summer to Cleethorpes for their summer holidays. The recession of the late 1920’s did neither Cleethorpes nor its pier any good at all, and, as so often, failing commerce was rescued by the long arm of the tax payer, Cleethorpes Borough Council buying the pier in 1936. During the war it was cut in half, and it was shortened still further in a storm in 1949, to 335 feet, becoming almost a landing stage rather than a pier. The pavilion at the landward end became an occasional concert hall and more frequently a bingo hall and wrestling arena, and things looked bleak. But in 2013 private commerce finally regirded its loins and carried out a major restoration which has proved popular and profitable. Well done Cleethorpes.
It is, sadly, unusual to find piers which are profitable. Those great cast iron wonders of the Victorian era, sticking out like hedgehog quills around the British coast, were of an age which sought simpler pleasures, people being quite happy to pay for a stroll on the pier, often combined with fish and chips and candyfloss, and a musical variety show in the pavilion in the evening. Most piers had pavilions, and the more exciting variety were of course at the seaward end, though this brought about the commercial and sometime physical termination of the pier with the effects of bad weather on box office takings, and much more fundamentally the corrosion of time on the wave washed structure under the heavily burdened boardwalk. Iron and salt water alas do not mix well.
The first British pier was at Ryde on the Isle of Wight, opening in 1814, and built to enable the cross-Solent ferry boat – sail driven of course – to dock quickly in variable wind conditions. It became the main access point for the Isle of Wight, and the Red Funnel ferries – that is both their description and their brand name – still run an intensive service from Portsmouth to the island via Ryde pier. It survives in good order to this day, is half a mile long. and has had a railway along it since 1864. Ryde had in fact three piers, alongside each other, the original pier surviving as it was built of wood, and the third pier surviving as it has the railway along it and is maintained appropriately. The second pier, the middle one, has not survived, giving an odd gap between the two which is made even more incongruous when the train turns up. It comprises ex-London Transport underground units, enjoying their retirement shuffling to Shanklin and back, rather like many of their passengers.
Britain had, at its First World War peak, over one hundred piers. Storms have done for some, drifting boats for others, and piers have seemed very vulnerable to fire, not surprisingly given the gallons of inflammable preservative poured onto timber boards and buildings over the years and the difficulty of putting out fires a thousand feet or more into the sea. Piers also seem to have an especial attraction to arsonists and in recent years four of the best are thought to have fallen prey – Weston-Super- Mare, Brighton Palace, Brighton West (twice), and Hastings. But the great enemy is rust – ironwork simply corrodes away sitting in the sea, and the burden of constant replacement and repair has proved just too much for many pavilion owners, whether private or local government. The ones that have survived best tend to have some commercial use – such as Ryde or Weston-Super-Mare, where the pier and seaward end pavilion were rapidly rebuilt after the fire at a cost of £38m as they were held to be an essential attraction to the tourist trade there.
Now there are only around fifty piers left, and a number of those do not appear to have very promising futures. But maybe there is a solution which could reinvigorate the whole seaside wonder experience and at the same time attract a modern generation who have higher expectations for their thrills than a simple stroll over the sea and a penny in the slot machine at the wet end.
The solution is obvious; don’t build out into the sea, build up. The public love a good view – the number of towers in central London that have viewing galleries at the top proves it. And the owners of buildings such as the Shard, the OXO Tower, or the Walkie-Talkie do not transport tourists to the top for nothing; they charge a pretty hefty premium for what the office workers on the decks below enjoy – or more likely, ignore – for free, all day, every day. Even better, if you can squeeze in a bar or restaurant, there are further margins to be had. All three of those buildings will serve you lunch or dinner at the top; breakfast too if you want muesli with a view.
There are as yet no serious high rise seaside buildings in the UK, but Marks Barfield, the firm of architects which designed and built the London Eye, the big revolving viewing wheel by Westminster Bridge, have produced a solution to creating viewing platforms without a high rise building to ascend, the first of what they hope will be many. On Brighton’s sea front they have built and funded the i360, a 568ft needle surrounded by a hydraulic doughnut of a viewing platform with magnificent views all the way round, though it is probably true to say that most riders (“ascenders”?) will be more fascinated by the views 26 miles north across Sussex than they will be by 26 miles of heaving sea southward. Highly symbolically, it is at the entrance to the former West Pier, now a couple of hunks of rust visible mainly at low tide. The concept is in deliberate homage to the West Pier – but raised up into the air instead of thrusting into the English Channel. There are dining facilities, but they at are the base rather than in the glass cabin, the logistics of having a restaurant in a glass lift having defeated the designer/promoters – probably just as well in regard to patron’s stomachs also.
Brighton is a low rise city, and planning permission for a building this high would be inconceivable, the i360 (the visibly permanent bit being a polished steel rod) proving controversial enough. But now it is built it is so slender that it fits readily into the great British tradition of columns and obelisks, and forms an elegant conversation piece on the edge of the city (albeit one with a glass doughnut on top from time to time).
Marks Barfield are hoping that this will be the first of many such, in historic cities as well as by the sea. A whole world of new vistas for us to peer at awaits.
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