Southend Pier – Pier Museum Reopens
Southend Pier Management have announced that the Pier Museum will be re-opening during Easter, after the Winter closure, and will remain open to the public on weekends throughout the summer. Meanwhile, it was reported on Monday that the pier train was again out of action due to a mechanical fault. All pier railway services are suspended for the time being but the pier will announce when it is eventually restored.
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Weston Birnbeck Pier – The Entire Story
For those who, for whatever reason, are not fully caught-up with the Birnbeck Matter, this very long article is a good introduction to the subject and how the pier’s c.160 year history led to the present situation. Nothing is raised in the article which has not been reported before, but it does raise the exciting prospect that the pier might be largely restored by the time of its all-important 160th year.
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Southport Pier – Comments from the Silcock Leisure Group
As with the above, this is effectively a recapitulation of reporting in previous weeks, but also included are comments from the Silcock Leisure group who have been actively involved in the Southport Pier campaign. Needless to say, they are delighted with the approval of the Government’s £20 million funding for the restoration project.
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Great Yarmouth Britannia Pier – Pier Tavern Unveiled
The Pier Tavern, forming part of the frontage of the pier’s entrance building, has been substantially remodelled and new bi-folding doors have been erected along its perimeter walls. The interior has been redecorated in a surprising hybrid between mock-traditional (complete with knobbly timber beams) and luminously contemporary (with industrial-style lighting and indoor plants), but overall it would seem to be a positive transformation. Work is ongoing in the sub-level area of the entrance building and is still planned for the ground-floor turret kiosk in the future.
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Withernsea Pier – Its Unfortunate History
For anyone interested who has not seen it before, this article runs through the usual narrative of Withernsea Pier’s cursed catalogue of catastrophic collisions, complete with a collection of claims on the Council and Charity’s collapsed campaign to construct a contemporary cantilevered costal …. pier. (Image: A very indistinct view of Withernsea Pier Gatehouse from an aeroplane, 2018)
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PIER OF THE YEAR 2026
The announcement was finally made earlier this week that the National Piers Society’s Pier of the Year award had been decided for 2026.
Firstly, the runner-ups; the same runner-ups that were placed last year, and a sign that they are each bound to have good chances for next year:
3rd: SWANAGE PIER
Image: Oliver Mills, 2016
2nd: Herne Bay Pier
Image: Oliver Mills, 2022
1st: Great Yarmouth Britannia Pier
Image: Oliver Mills, 2025
This is the first year that Great Yarmouth Britannia Pier has won the Pier of the Year Award, and it is always good to see a new pier enter the shiny list of winners for the first time and prevent a pier monopoly from forming. The evident causes for the pier being embraced so warmly in the rankings this year are clearly from the completed modernisation works to the amusements and entrance building, in addition to commendable efforts to improve the programming and facilities in the Pier Theatre. Both of these aspects were vividly demonstrated to NPS members during the 2025 AGM in Great Yarmouth. The Abbott and Manning familes, operating as Triangle Amusements, have owned the pier since 2022 and (considering the timescales for planning and construction) have delivered their proposed improvements with impressive rapidity and drive.
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Weston Birnbeck Pier – Further £62,000 Funding
North Somerset Council have recently announced a further welcome addition to their funding for the pier project, drawn from the Heritage at Risk Capital Fund and delivered by Historic England. This specific package of funding is intended to support the restoration of the Grade-II listed entrance gates and turnstiles, as well as providing further repairs to the Toll House and “Shell Shop”.
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Mumbles Pier – Extension to Planning Approval Applied for
Planning approval for the latter phases of Mumbles Pier’s restoration, approved in 2021, expired this year after the five year commencement timescale was passed. A new planning application has been submitted to seek permission for this commencement timescale to be extended, allowing for outstanding planning conditions to be addressed and (hopefully) construction to begin relatively soon. It would undoubtedly be wonderful to see the pre-Pandemic restoration progress at the pier finally resume and reach completion.
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Ryde Pier – Proposals for Pier Railway Station Repairs
Listed Building Consent has been applied for to allow the renewal of the platform canopies at the Pier Head Railway Station on Ryde Pier, which are presently constructed of corrugated asbestos in a deteriorated condition. This will be replaced with trapezoidal steel sheets, which the independent news article fears will be much noisier in rainier weather, and indeed it will be! (I am sure passengers can cope with a few minutes of clattering roof noises before embarking on their equally clattering train). Other minor repairs to the associated railway infrastructure is also proposed.
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Hastings Pier – “Friends of Hastings Pier” Sale Bid Fails
Reproduced in full is the Friends of Hastings Pier’s most recent statement, released on Thursday evening. I will leave it at that for now.
Dear Friends
Over the last six months we have collaborated with many stakeholders as part of a working group that was set up by Helena Dollimore MP to try to secure the Pier for the community.
Mr Gulzar has stated that he wants £4 million which is many multiple times the valuation figure we have received from a real estate company that specialises in selling retail and leisure properties globally. As such we have not progressed any further during the six month moratorium period but the Pier will still remain registered as an Asset of Community Value until 6th November 2028 and we would like to keep an open channel with the current owner should things change.
We will continue to lobby to ensure the Pier becomes the beacon of regeneration that it was intended to be, and brings jobs and tourists to our town. Hastings Pier is a wonderful space that we will work to preserve for future generations.
2026 AGM – BOURNEMOUTH
FRIDAY 19th to SUNDAY 21st JUNE – JOIN US IN SUNNY BOURNEMOUTH!
NPS Members and friends are cordially invited to join us for our Annual General Meeting Gala Weekend in the South Coast’s premier seaside resort of Bournemouth, with your hard-working committee having prepared a superb weekend of events including visits to THREE piers! Please see full details of the action-packed three-day itinerary in your copy of PIERS 158, or on our Booking Form via the link below, and BOOK IN for the events you wish to attend by Friday 1st May 2026. Once you’ve completed your form with your details and choices – make sure you click the SUBMIT button at the end of the payment details page for your booking to be recorded.
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Weston Birnbeck Pier – Involvement with Local College
North Somerset Council have recently made an arrangement with Weston Collage, allowing students of the college’s T-level course in Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction to gain direct experience from the Birnbeck project. In addition to this arrangement, which will involve a number of site visits for the College, two students have been selected to engage in a formal apprenticeship by the two engaged contractors.
Meanwhile, progress on stripping the pier bridge decking is ongoing at an impressive rate; presently approximately two thirds decking on the bridge section has been cleared using the jack-up work platform.
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Fleetwood People’s Pier CIC – Website Launched
The recently formed community group concerning the regeneration of the Fleetwood Pier site, having recently built publicity, have now launched a website where ongoing progress and events will be publicised. An official logo has recently been released, following a public competition (the majority of entries, inevitably, being ChatGPT fabrications). The interesting part for the future will be the likely long and complex path towards the acquisition of the site, fundraising, and planning the scheme. So far, it is intended to provide a community-owned development comprising a social hub and cafe, market space and a “jetty” (why not call it a pier?). In any case, this will be a community movement which deserves support and attentive observation over the course of the next few years.
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Southend Pier Museum – London Marathon Fundraising for Museum Lift
The chairman of the Southend Pier Museum will be competing in the London Marathon, raising funds for the planning and installation of a disabled-access lift to the museum. This space, being sited in a sub-level position relative to the pier’s modern visitor’s entrance, presently does not benefit from level access and this will inevitably cause impediments for less able-bodied visitors. Such an arrangement had likely been deemed acceptably compliant on the basis of the museum’s situation within a difficult-to-adapt listed structure, and until recently, the museum has been a relatively modest undertaking. As reported in the article, footfall has encouragingly expanded this year, provoking serious consideration on access arrangements. Overall, a very worthy cause.
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Ramsey Queen’s Pier – 2026 Opening Times
The reconstruction of the Queen’s Pier is ongoing, but as usual, the pier will be opened for public visiting every Sunday afternoon throughout the Summer. The first day of opening will by Sunday 3rd May, between the hours of 14:00-17:00.
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Southport Pier – Contractors Arrive at the Site
Sefton Council have confirmed that the contractors A. E Yates have arrived at the Pier site this week to undertake pre-construction works. These include a second phase of paint inspections for the pier columns, to determine the extent of decay since the previous inspection. Ground testing will also be undertaken to ascertain the suitability of the ground for construction vehicles and point loads such as scaffolding. Regardless of these extra tests preceding the start of the primary construction phase, and potentially leading to additional mitigatory works if the results of the tests are unfavourable, it is still expected that the pier will reopen to the public at some point in 2027.
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Birnbeck Pier – Photographic Partner to the Project
North Somerset Council have announced a partnership with the local A1 Camera Club, which will allow the reconstruction process to be well-documented photographically. Engaging an intial group of 12 members from the club to be accompanied onto the pier site will likely produce a very varied and eclectic range of photographic records. It has the potential to materialise as a good photographic book on the project, or at least a section of a new book on the pier’s full history once reopened.
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Hastings Pier – History of the Landing Stage
An account by local historian and journalist Steve Peak, tracking the active life of Hastings Pier’s landing stage from international ferry crossings to the Waverley’s final calling at the pier in 1981. One can at least be thankful that the Waverley continues to call at Eastbourne Pier.
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Dunoon Pier – A Successful Waverley Exhibition
Over 800 visitors were reported to have attended the “Steamers of the Clyde” exhibition at Dunoon Pier earlier in April, which included a number of talks about the local pier and steaming heritage, as well as stalls and scale models on display. All offerings in the exhibition were reportedly enjoyed with considerable interest amongst the local community, which provoked optimistic feelings for the future of the pier and steamers in and around Dunoon.
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Cromer Pier – Competition for a Mural Design
To celebrate the pier’s 150th anniversary, North Norfolk Council have announced a competition for schoolchildren to conceive an outline design for a new mural depicting the pier. Entries will be accepted until the 22nd May and can be submitted as physical paper items or digital files. Hopefully the resulting entries will be real expressions of creativity from local children, and not the outsplatterings of A.I. (as was notoriously done at Glasgow earlier this year).
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