A guide to British piers and their history

Why British piers still matter

There is something quietly stubborn about a British pier. It juts out over cold, churning water on iron legs, survives salt, storms and shifting sands, and asks for nothing more than a few hours of your time. At their peak in the early twentieth century, more than a hundred pleasure piers lined the coasts of England, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Today around fifty survive in some form, and each one tells you something about how we used to holiday, how we build by the sea, and what we value enough to repair.

If you are planning a coastal trip, piers are worth building an itinerary around. They are free to walk on, usually open from morning until late, and they put you out over the water in a way no beach can quite match.

The Victorian origins of the pleasure pier

The first piers were not built for amusement at all. As steamships and railways brought growing numbers of visitors to seaside towns in the early nineteenth century, harbour space became tight. A pier let passengers disembark without blocking the quayside, and it gave genteel visitors somewhere to promenade away from the mud and the crowds.

Ryde Pier on the Isle of Wight, opened in 1814, is usually credited as the oldest surviving pier in the country. Brighton's Chain Pier followed in 1823, then a wave of construction through the 1830s and 1840s as towns competed to look modern and welcoming.

The engineering was daring for its time. Builders sank iron screw piles into the seabed, an innovation borrowed from lighthouse construction, and braced them with wrought iron. Earlier wooden piers rotted fast and were swept away by winter gales. Iron, and later steel, gave the structures a fighting chance.

From promenade to palace of entertainment

Once the railways made day trips cheap, piers had to earn their keep. Landing fees alone would not pay for maintenance, so owners added attractions. The result was the classic British pleasure pier: a theatre at the far end, a pavilion for concerts and dancing, slot machines, fortune tellers and, in the more ambitious cases, a funfair.

The golden age ran roughly from 1880 to 1939. Towns such as Blackpool, Llandudno, Eastbourne, Cromer and Cleethorpes built piers that became the social centrepiece of the resort. Blackpool went further than most, ending up with three separate piers, each with its own character.

• Blackpool North Pier opened in 1863 and stayed genteel, with theatre and orchestral concerts.
• Blackpool Central Pier arrived in 1868 and leaned into novelty and family amusements.
• Blackpool South Pier opened in 1893 and evolved into a full funfair over the water.

Elsewhere, the pattern was the same: promenade in the morning, tea and a band in the afternoon, lights and laughter after dark.

Fire, storm and the fight to survive

The twentieth century was unkind to piers. Saltwater corrodes iron, wood dries and catches, and timber decking burns quickly once a fire takes hold. Add the great storms of 1978, 1987, 1990 and 2013, and it is remarkable how many structures are still standing.

Fire has been the cruellest enemy. Brighton West Pier, opened in 1866 and once the most photographed pier in Britain, was closed in 1975 and reduced to a skeletal ruin by arson and storms in 2003. It remains offshore, a haunting silhouette at sunset. Hastings Pier burned in 2010, losing almost everything above deck level, yet reopened in 2016 after a community share offer raised millions.

Some losses were total. Morecambe Central Pier was demolished in 1992 after storm damage. Margate's original jetty went long before. Others, like Eastbourne, Bournemouth and Llandudno, have been steadily repaired and now look healthier than they have in decades.

What to look for when you visit

A pier rewards a slow walk. Start at the shoreward end and watch how the structure changes as you move out over the water. Notice the expansion joints in the decking, the rust-proof paint on the railings, the piles disappearing into the surf.

• Check the tide times. At low water on a big spring tide, you can see the full length of the supporting piles, which is the best moment to appreciate the engineering.
• Look for the old theatre or pavilion. Even where the building has gone, the wider section at the pier head usually marks where it stood.
• Read the plaques and displays. Many restored piers now include interpretation boards explaining their construction, their wartime use and the repairs that saved them.
• Go early or late. Piers are at their best in soft light, when the crowds thin and the sea below turns glassy.

Supporting the next chapter

Piers are expensive to keep. A single winter of storms can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds in repairs, and the money rarely appears on its own. Heritage lottery funding, local councils, charitable trusts and community groups now share the burden, and many piers depend on volunteers as much as on ticket sales.

That means your visit is not just a pleasant afternoon out. Buying a coffee at the pier head, paying for a turn on the amusements, or dropping something in a donation box all help keep the decking sound for another season. If you live near the coast, look out for pier friends groups and open days.

These structures have outlasted steamers, music halls and the package holiday. They have been bombed, burned, battered and rebuilt. Standing at the end of one, with the wind coming off the sea and the land a reassuring distance behind you, it is easy to see why generations keep coming back.