Palace Pier Brighton

The Brighton Marine Palace and Pier is a pleasure pier in Brighton, England. It is generally known as the Palace Pier for short, but has been informally renamed Brighton Pier since 2000 by its owners, the Noble Organisation, as it is now Brighton's only non-derelict pier.

I grew up visiting the Palace Pier.  It was a feature of my relationship and my siblings relationship with the Franklin family; our family.  Grandad Frank, Nana Hannah, Christine and Richard.  To use its current moniker Brighton Pier is and was always a happy place.  Fresh Doughnuts; Fish and Chips; wind swept and salt watered on the promenade.  Cheap as chips amusements and rides and glancing down through the gaps in the planking to watch the surf.

The picture at Picture 5 is Kim and myself in Summer 2004.  It was a beautiful day and in the company of the whole family and Amanda Buchan from Maple Ridge in Canada.  We gorged on all that is traditional seaside at the original seaside location.  Ice creams and the lot.

  

The West Pier was its rival but was closed in 1975 and was subsequently severely damaged by fires and storms, with the remaining iron structure being partially demolished in 2010. Historically, the now destroyed Royal Suspension Chain Pier was the first pier structure built in Brighton.

Work began on the Palace Pier in 1891, the inaugural ceremony for laying of the first pile was held on 7 November 1891, overseen by Mayor Samuel Henry Soper. The pier opened in May 1899 after costing a record £27,000 to build. This was Brighton's third pier. A condition to be met by its builders, in exchange for permission to build, was that the first, the Royal Suspension Chain Pier of 1823, which had fallen into a state of disrepair, was to be demolished.  They were saved this task by a storm which largely destroyed the Chain Pier.

A concert hall opened two years later, and by 1911 this had become a theatre.  During World War II the pier as closed and some decking removed as a security precaution.  Summer shows with stars such as Dick Emery, Tommy Trinder and Doris and Elsie Waters were held in the theatre until the 1970s.  During a storm in 1973, a 70-ton barge moored at the pier's landing stage broke loose and began to damage the pier head, particularly the theatre.  Despite fears that the pier would be destroyed, the storm eased and the barge was removed.  The damaged theatre was never used again.

In 1986 the theatre was removed, on the understanding that it would be replaced.   This has not happened, and the present seaward end building looks fairly modern in comparison with the rest of the structure, supporting a domed amusement arcade and several fairground rides, including several thrill rides, children's rides and roller coasters.

A bomb planted by the IRA near the pier in 1994 was defused by a controlled explosion.

The pier had signs reading "Brighton Pier" attached to it in 2000, although this change is not recognised by the National Piers Society or many of the residents of Brighton and Hove.  The local newspaper, The Argus, still generally refers to the structure as the Palace Pier.

The Palace Pier suffered a large fire on 4 February 2003 but the damage was limited and most of the pier was able to reopen the next day. This was a fraught period for Brighton's piers, with much damage occurring to the West Pier (of 1866) shortly before and after this event.

The pier features prominently in the 1971 film, Carry on at Your Convenience, and it is frequently shown iconically to "set" film and television features in Brighton, for example in scenes in Mirrormask, The Persuaders, the Doctor Who serial The Leisure Hive (1980), the 1979 film Quadrophenia and the 2007 film, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The End of the Affair (1999 film) and Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa. Much earlier on in 1896 the pier was also shown in many silent films. R.W. Paul shot the iconic film, On Brighton Beach, which included both the Palace Pier and the West Pier. Palace Pier is a novel by Keith Waterhouse, set in Brighton, and it is the setting for a scene in the Graham Greene novel Brighton Rock. The pier was also featured in Lynda la Plante's 1998 thriller Killer Net.