The West Pier

[Hendrax]

Do YOU remember WHEN Dick Tight was going to BUILD the new GROUND there ?

i wish you would go on holiday to somewhere with no signal and take your caps with you.

 

[Triggaaar]

Oi, I was just about to post that!

Just about to? You're almost 7 hours too late Would be nice to see the West Pier immortalised by Jim

 

[kevo]

It would be great to see it restored not as a competitor to the Palace Pier but something classier (not difficult!) - no amusement arcades, just some really good restaurants and bars to watch the sunsets from, and maybe even a music venue or an art gallery, but it would cost copious millions.

 

[HovaGirl]

I remember the rumour that Chris Eubank was going to buy it many years ago.

Yes, he was going to live on it, as I remember.

 

[HovaGirl]

Not many of us can say we've been on both piers.

Back in the day, I always preferred the West Pier. Palace Pier was always too ostentatious for me.

 

[rouseytastic]

It would be great to see it restored not as a competitor to the Palace Pier but something classier (not difficult!) - no amusement arcades, just some really good restaurants and bars to watch the sunsets from, and maybe even a music venue or an art gallery, but it would cost copious millions.

I was thinking the same thing a few days ago when i was walking past it. As you say the cost would be huge and i actually love the pier (or whats left of it) in its current state.

Would be nice to have a third pier built, brand new, with restaurants, bars and maybe a nightclub. Although it didn't exactly work in Worthing.....

 

[fork me]

I remember the rumour that Chris Eubank was going to buy it many years ago.

He wanted to build a house onn the sea end. They should let him, then once he's safely settled in, demoloshed the rest of it and left him there.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

The fact it wasn't re-built is a stain on the town's/city's/trust's inertia.

The state it's in now, I've kind of got used to it; it's more a sculpture than anything else (even though it obviously wasn't designed that way) and I quite like it that way.

Almost certainly too late now, so I'd let nature take its course.

The Noble Organisation ( such an inappropriate name ! ) did indeed object but I'm not aware they ever succeeded in preventing the Trust from doing anything ( or in reality, nothing ). As part of the tour I became a member of the trust and I don't think I've ever seen such an amateurish and self obsessed organisation. It doesn't surprise me at all that they failed to save the pier.

That said, Noble are no better in many ways and burnt down the West Pier and set fire to their own ( allegedly ). They couldn't care less for the people or history of this city as is proven by their pathetic attempt to rename the Palace Pier.

I believe that the major stumbling block has always been it's Grade 1 listing which makes it almost impossible to restore at under a squillion pounds due to the onerous requirements attached to the listing.

 

[Notters]

I was thinking the same thing a few days ago when i was walking past it. As you say the cost would be huge and i actually love the pier (or whats left of it) in its current state.

Would be nice to have a third pier built, brand new, with restaurants, bars and maybe a nightclub. Although it didn't exactly work in Worthing.....

Worthing schmurthing.

 

[chucky1973]

is it good fishing ground?

 

[tinycowboy]

I think it's lovely, and i'm pretty certain most people in Brighton I know do. It's probably the best thing on the seafront (apart from Jack and Linda's Fish Smokery)

I'm with you - i love the Smokery, and i love the pier. I can't remember much about West Pier when you could go on it, but I think I preferred Palace Pier at the time - more trashy, as it is now.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I believe that the major stumbling block has always been it's Grade 1 listing which makes it almost impossible to restore at under a squillion pounds due to the onerous requirements attached to the listing.

Indeed that was a stumbling block but a bigger one was always the in-fighting within the West Pier Trust. There was always rumour that they had secured funding from x, y and z when in reality they meant they had applied for the funding. Even then the literature I saw to support the applications could have been written by a teenager. There always seemed an air of expectation from the trust board that the building was so important and famous that they couldn't fail to get funding. The power struggle on the board often meant people stepping down and new appointments meaning there was rarely any consistency in message or vision.

The reason we now have what we have is the inability of the West Pier Trust and B&H Council as well as immoral objections by Noble - the money and Grade I issues are minor by comparison.

 

[Gullys Cats]

Makes a great photo with the sun setting in the distance!