The Sad Story of a Graceful Lady by Pamela King

I have no memory of my homeland England but was always fascinated by old photos of the West Pier.

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She grew slowly, gradually maturing from a playful child to a cheeky teenager and finally a graceful old lady.

She was born in 1863 with an open promenade deck, six small ornamental buildings and two toll houses. Glass screens at the end of the pier protected visitors from the wind and rain.

The bandstand, reminiscent of a wedding cake, added in 1875, denoted the young fun-loving girl she had become.

The final building, completed in 1916, was a graceful concert hall. She was now an elegant middle-aged lady. She still loved life and the new addition attracted and entertained holiday-makers with all the pomp and frippery that was the essence of the English seaside resort.

The pier was unique, its proportions and style unrivalled, and its concert hall and theatre two of the best Victorian and Edwardian seaside entertainment buildings.
She changed little over the next 50 years except for aging gracefully but her age took its toll and in 1969 it was closed to the public for safety reasons.

In 1975 it was sold to the West Pier Trust for 100 pounds with plans for its restoration. By 2003 the planned funds had not been raised and this sophisticated old lady began to deteriorate and suffer at the hands of vandals, neglect and weather.

It was a catastrophic year for the old girl.

The Pavilion was destroyed by an arson attack and the Concert Hall, seriously damaged in a huge storm the previous December, was also deliberately set on fire.

Deemed a public hazard, restoration funding was withdrawn, and in 2010 the burnt-out Concert Hall was removed.

Now, only a skeleton of its former glory, it was left untouched.