Eastbourne Pier

Great to hear that the Eastbourne Pier will re-open this weekend just two months after a fire ravaged the front part of it. My parents, who live very close to the town, texted me on that fateful night in July distraught, not because they will miss the penny slots, but because the pier is the centrepiece of the seafront where they spend many an hour.

The photos did not paint a good picture but thanks to the Eastbourne Hospitality Association, insurance recovery and fundrasing by the Pier Benelvolent Fund the pier will be back open for business on Saturday.

Visitors will be able to access two-thirds of the Grade II listed building after walkways were constructed to make is safe. Access will be from the front of the pier which will take people around to the parts that were saved from the fire including cafe’s, the fishing platform, shops and the Atlantis Nightclub.

The 1,000 foot pier opened in 1870, 56 years after Britain’s first one in Ryde on the Isle of Wight. It is owned by Trevor Hemmings’ Cuerdon Leisure. Hemmings also owns Preston North End.

At the height of the fire, up to 80 firefighters, together with RNLI crews, tackled the blaze, which police subsequently treated as suspicious. No arrests have been made.

Shortly after the fire David Cameron and George Osborne surveyed the damage and pledged £2m to restore the pier to it’s former glory. Sadly in August a workman died after falling of the pier whilst helping with the re-construction.

Along the coast at Hastings, their pier is undergoing a £14m rebuild after it was destroyed by a fire in 2010, with help from Lottery funding. Many iconic piers have been lost to the nation sadly although more than 50 still remain in the UK, which is testament to their construction over a century ago, especially bearing mind no more are expected to be ever built.