{"id":7957,"date":"2012-04-09T12:31:15","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T11:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=7957"},"modified":"2013-04-21T21:56:55","modified_gmt":"2013-04-21T20:56:55","slug":"the-tragedy-of-west-pier-brighton-beach-brighton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/the-tragedy-of-west-pier-brighton-beach-brighton\/","title":{"rendered":"The tragedy of West Pier, Brighton beach, Brighton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-01.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Unlikely to ever recover from the suspicious fires that saw this beautiful Grade I listed pier\u00a0reduced\u00a0to a burnt out shell, Brighton&#8217;s West Pier cuts a sorrowful sight in the spring sunshine.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-02.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve already covered a lot of the history of the pier in a series of articles last year &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/remembering-the-brighton-west-pier-in-photos-part-one\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Remembering the Brighton West Pier in photos<\/a>\u00a0&#8211; but it&#8217;s still heartbreaking to see the structure dying a slow death out to sea.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s some new photos, taken in April 2012:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-03.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-04.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The West Pier Trust is still clinging on to its faint hopes of restoring the pier.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, this aspiration now seems linked with the construction of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/the-brighton-i360-tower-successor-to-the-west-pier\/\">Brighton i360 Tower<\/a>, a beastly, brash\u00a0confection,\u00a0optimistically\u00a0described\u00a0by the Trust as being, &#8220;entirely in the spirit of the original pier\u2019s history and the best option to replicate its success and ethos.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-05.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Surviving West Pier shop.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-06.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-07.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-08.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You can still see some of the fine ironwork on the pier.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-09.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The delicate cast iron supports still stand.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-10.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>View of the West Pier from its old rival, the Palace Pier.<\/p>\n<p>After being given a\u00a0\u00a314.2m Lottery award in 1998, there was real hope that this beautiful old pier would be restored, but two subsequent arson attacks &#8211; and major storm damage &#8211; have ensured that it&#8217;s hugely unlikely the West Pier will return from the dead.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t imagine that&#8217;s something that&#8217;s going to upset the owners of \u00a0the Palace Pier too much.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-11.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Burnt and buckled beams.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-12.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Some of the structure seems in surprisingly good shape.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-13.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-14.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The remains of West Pier on Brighton beach, Brighton, East Sussex, April 2012\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/brighton-west-pier-2012-15.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Part of the old concert hall can still be seen jutting out above the waves.<\/p>\n<p>Read more about the pier&#8217;s past, present and future here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/remembering-the-brighton-west-pier-in-photos-part-one\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Remembering the Brighton West Pier in photos<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlikely to ever recover from the suspicious fires that saw this beautiful Grade I listed pier\u00a0reduced\u00a0to a burnt out shell, Brighton&#8217;s West Pier cuts a sorrowful sight in the spring &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,193],"tags":[115,53,30,32],"class_list":["post-7957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photos","category-places","tag-brighton","tag-pier","tag-sea","tag-seaside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/brighton-west-pier-2012-011.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-24l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7957"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12027,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957\/revisions\/12027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}