Some Pier Facts

Pier’s First Vessel - May 31, 1872
The nearly-finished Hastings Pier was used for the first time by a vessel, when Thomas Brassey’s large yacht Eothen [?], 325 tons, steam-screw, 78 hp, 9-10 knots, tied up at the end. The pier was open to public inspection.

 

Hastings Pier Opens - August 9, 1872
The pier opened on 5 August, the bank holiday.  There was heavy rain. …….Some christened it the “Palace on the Sea”.

 

Pier’s Busiest Day - August 10, 1883
Hastings Pier had its busiest day so far in its 11-year history on Bank Holiday Monday, 6 August, when over 9,400 people passed through the turnstiles.

Pier Landing Stage - May 2, 1890
A big new landing stage on Hastings Pier was opened for steamboat traffic on Thursday 1 May.  The original landing stage was along the east side of the promenade beside the Pavilion. The work of the last ten months had extended this to the end of the pier and then taken in the whole of the pier-head. The staging now ran round both the east and south side of the Pavilion, but not the west, because that was too exposed. The staging was in three levels. About 400-500 tons of greenheart woods had been used, plus130-140 tons of iron. As many as four steamers could use the pier together.

 

Steamboat Prosecution - September 11, 1896
The captain of the Hastings steamer Bonnie Princess, William Hurdman, was charged on 10 September with overloading on 17 August. He sailed from Hastings Pier to Dungeness with 901 passengers, 247 more than allowed. He was fined £10 plus a shilling per head extra.

 

Pier Improvement - February 3, 1899
The Hastings Pier pavilion closed at the end of January for re-roofing and enlargement. It was expected to re-open in mid-May. The pavilion had been open continuously since the pier opened in 1872.

Facts & Figures–August Update

• Almost 40% through the project.
• 40 workers on site, and growing
• 62 of 64 trusses needing replacement on the Parade Extension have been completed as well as around 250 dock beams.
• This amounts to the renewal of more than 1/3rd of the structure.
• 2//3rds of the decking have been renewed.
• Replacing the trusses on the central section has started as has refurbishment of the Bandstand Pavilion
• Watch out for the Jack Up Barge

Could Fleetwood follow Hastings in pier revival?

Mr Greenall, project manager of the Fleetwood People’s Pier scheme, told the Weekly News: “The Hasting People’s Pier scheme has been a real inspiration to us.

“What’s good about it is the way the community there have got together to help pay for the work. If we set up a steering group, there is no reason why we could not set up a shares scheme, if that’s what people in Fleetwood would want. It is an option. I will be paying a visit to Hastings to see what things we can learn from them.”
http://www.fleetwoodtoday.co.uk/news/could-fleetwood-follow-hastings-in-pier-revival-1-6795965

Historic pier destroyed in fire - BBC News
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/7605562.stm
9 Sep 2008 - The historic Fleetwood Pier in Lancashire burns down in a fire leaving the 98-year-old building "completely gutted".

Fleetwood Pier was rebuilt in 1953 after being damaged by a fire in 1952.
The blaze on 25 August 1952 started in the cinema and created an inferno that could be seen from 20 miles away.
The attraction was first built in 1910 - the last to be constructed in the "golden age" of pier building, from 1860 to 1910.
It was built with a promenade deck and 600ft long jetty with an ornate oriental-style pavilion, which opened to the public in 1911.

There’s more than one type of bird flies o’er the Pier (an albatross would be nice)

Not Jonathan Livingston Seagull (see here)

Birds, clouds, reflections, sea, and just a touch of pier

 

Possibly, just possibly, an original riveted Truss and chords exposed under the Pier at last week’s low tide

And where the rivets driven home, perhaps, with this?

Low tide loveliness

On a clear day………..

Thanks to the Pier People………..

coping cheerfully with over twice the number of people expected.

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard on the Old Town Carnival Float, and those who carried her (and to Jo, of course!)

From the August 2014 HPC Newsletter

Construction update

Work is gathering pace on the Pier. Replacement steelwork and new decking is now substantially completed to the Parade Extension. The concentration is now on the central spine along the Pier to provide access to the Pier Head. Work on the Old Pavilion building has started to transform it into a restaurant. 50 new supporting deck beams have been inserted beneath the building. The building has been stripped out and the internal partitions removed. Work will now start on replacing the floor structure and altering the outside walls. The roof structure has been exposed and looks to be in a reasonable condition, particularly as it is about 100 years old. We will be re-covering the main roof and the two cupolas probably with zinc. At the beginning of September a jack-up barge may be arriving. It will moor alongside the Pier and will provide safe access for the initial demolition works and will also be used to install the new piles for the Visitor Centre. It is planned to be here for four weeks.
For more information about the latest reconstruction work come to our teatime updates at The Hub on alternate Wednesday afternoons between 3pm and 4pm (20th August & 3rd September) or look on our website for more information.

For the whole August 2014 Newsletter, click below.

Simon Opie on Fire Safety & The Pier

“Because piers are built to Victorian building standards, their weight-carrying capacity is quite limited. When large buildings are built on piers, they tend to be built out of fairly light-weight materials and that almost, by definition, means they are quite flammable. That’s one of the things we’re addressing in our restoration of Hastings Pier. The two buildings we’re building will incorporate modern material and modern fire resistance standards. In order to do that, we’re having to strengthen the structure to carry the extra weight of the building.

“The visitor centre, for example, is built of a material called cross-laminated timber. It’s a timber which is dense and laminated in such a way it might charr but should not immediately burst into flame.”

“We have been in full decision with building control and the fire authorities here and we’re not planning to put sprinklers into our buildings, however, we are providing a dry raiser which will run down to the visitor centre. That will allow the fire bridge to pump water directly to the visitor centre, in the unlikely event of a need. Our strategy is very much around ensuring the buildings themselves are inherently fire resistant”

Sea Angling Festival - wounded soldiers fishing at Hastings, on the pier 1914

Lest We Forget

In praise of Eugenius Birch

Elegant, exalted, masterfully engineered – but sadly not eternal.  Eugenius Birch’s piers once graced the length of south England’s coastline from Margate to Plymouth.

Hastings Pier succumbed to fire in 2010.  In the aftermath of that blaze, Howard Jacobson wrote a fond tribute to him, saying: “We are massively in his debt. The seaside looks the way it looks, actually and ideally, thanks in no small measure to Eugenius Birch.”

Birch was an engineer, and with his brother built railways, bridges and viaducts across England.  He also travelled to India to build railways for the East Indian Railway Company – a trip which doubtless influenced the oriental design of the original ballroom on Hastings Pier.  It was seminal in some ways: it was the first British pier to have a grand pavilion, and the first to have it included as an integral part of the design.

As well as stylish, his piers were also stable thanks to his use of Alexander Mitchell’s helical screw - screw-piling the iron supports into the sea bed rather than hammering them in.

Writer Jonathan Glancy called them “robust but whimsical structures … he knew how to build delightfully and well.  His works adorn rather than destroy views from our promenades.  They heighten rather than diminish the strength of the sea.”

But this does not mean they were invincible – of his 14 piers built between 1856 and 1884, just Blackpool’s North Pier now operates – and that was left in tatters by last December’s storms.

One of the many, and perhaps the main, reasons the restoration of Hastings Pier is so important.

- See more at: http://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2014/07/31/in-praise-of-eugenius-birch/32556#sthash.9HVSEqr1.dpuf