Pier into the Future
By Steve Sharp
Not a spelling error, but the aptly name organisation formed to ensure the future of Ventura Pier in California.
In 1993, the 121-year-old historic landmark underwent an ambitious $3.2 million restoration with fund aid provided by four different state agencies. The renovation restored the pier to its original grandeur as one of the state's longest wooden piers.
Piers, it seems, are making something of a comeback with today’s younger generation enjoying them as much as we did as children.
As a child I was occasionally taken to Blackpool. If it was summer then it was buckets and spades, donkey rides and ice cream, whilst in the winter it was the Blackpool Illuminations, the illuminated trams and fish and chips.
Always though the pier, or rather the piers, as Blackpool boasts three of them. Each crammed with shows, entertainment, food and drink, and souvenirs. Everything from models of the Blackpool Tower, enjoying its own renaissance thanks to ‘Strictly’, saucy postcards and ‘Kiss me Quick’ hats.
The North Pier is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.
Image source: TripAdvisor
These piers were always intended as attractions for ‘trippers’ whereas many were built in Victorian times to accommodate steamers in places without harbours. The first in the UK being Ryde Pier on the Isle of Wight to allow ferries from the mainland to berth.
Brighton pier remains popular with the public with over 4 million visitors a year. It has has been featured in many works of British culture, including the gangster thriller Brighton Rock, and The Who’s concept album and the film Quadrophenia.
The film storyline is of disillusioned ‘60’s youth and the clashes between Mods and Rockers through the town and on the pier.
Thankfully, today it offers more sedate pursuits, and it too enjoys Grade II listing.
Image Source: Brighton Pier
My hometown Southwold has an excellent and very successful pier which every visitor makes a beeline for to enjoy the views, the food, and some eccentric entertainment courtesy of inventor Tim Hunkin.
His Under the Pier Show collection of wacky amusements is said to be one of the most unique and eccentric collections of interactive machines in the world. From the rather cathartic ‘Whack a Banker’ to ‘Quick Fit,’ where you can get all the benefits of a workout simply by lying on a bed, and ‘Micro Break,’ a two minute holiday.
George Orwell lived in Southwold for many years, where he wrote the ‘Grim up North’ book The Road to Wigan Pier, which is not really a pier at all as we would know it.
He is remembered as a rather dishevelled, unshaven figure dressed in suits handmade by a local tailor but that needed a good iron, a long scarf, and no hat. His appearance, odour and philandering’s were seen by locals as game-playing, as it was fashionable then for the middle classes to have socialist leanings.
His image can bee seen in a mural on the pier.
Aficionados can join the National Piers Society, a non-profit-making registered charity, which was founded in 1979 under the leadership of Sir John Betjeman, at the time when some of the finest piers were threatened with demolition.
The society’s annual Pier of the Year award, judged by a panel of experts is hotley contested and this year was won by Southend, the longest pleasure pier in the world.
The society produces a quarterly journal ‘PIERS’ “featuring all the latest pier news and events, historical features and richly illustrated articles which are of interest to pier lovers everywhere.”!
If you are drawn to be a pier lover, then resist the urge to type that single word into Google. All you will get is endless pictures, articles, videos, and opinions of Piers Morgan!
Steve