Brighton Palace Pier – Confirmation of Sale Process
It has been formally confirmed by the Brighton Pier Group that the Brighton Palace Pier will be placed on the market for an undisclosed price. This follows previous reports of vague suggestions that the pier might be sold. The current owners hope that the sale might be completed by the start of the Summer season, but has roundly blamed a notable decline in Brighton tourism over the last few years for informing their decision. Given CEO Anne Ackford’s previous notable efforts and campaigns towards improving tourism offerings in Brighton (see link for a typical example), the decision towards withdrawing from the custodianship of probably Brighton’s most important individual attraction is a concerning sign of the present state of the resort’s tourism industry.
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Ramsey Queen’s Pier – Full Funding for Bay 11
The Queen’s Pier Restoration Trust has announced that they have received a £80,000 donation from the Alan Chinery Trust, intended to fund the restoration of Bay 11 in its entirety. This donation has allowed the process for ordering the steel to be commenced, probably much earlier than would otherwise have been the case, and the necessary construction work will take place later this year.
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Brighton Palace Pier – Further News Coverage
Since the announcement of the intended sale last week, the Palace Pier matter has since spread across all national news and has become the dominant piece of pier news this week. Linked are a number of articles. Firstly a Guardian article which gives details on the sequence of events which led to the sale announcement. Secondly, an article of comments from local politicians, giving fairly predictable statements of praise for the pier and town – e.g. “a cultural icon and a jewel in the crown” (which, of course, the pier is). Then, author Matt Haig reflects with a statement of criticism on what the pier has become today; a statement which the Brighton Pier Group understandably disagreed with. It does, however, provoke some searching thoughts on whether the present “traditional” pier offerings (which, from memory, might range from fast-food kiosks, gift shops selling keychains and fridge magnets, and under-cover amusement arcades) represents the pier at its best and resonates with the Brighton tourists of today.
Anyway, the final link is to an article taking a diversion and instead showing some historic photographs of the pier. These include pictures from when the pier still enjoyed a landing stage (demolished during 1973, in work which also saw the working barge collide into the pier head), as well as a harsh visual depiction of the “heritage crime” of 1986.
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Politicians
Matt Haig
Photographs
Great Yarmouth Britannia Pier – A Pantomime for Christmas 2026
The Britannia Pier Theatre have announced a pantomime show taking place during the course of December, in the setting of “Beauty and the Beast”. Gareth Gates will be playing “The Beast”, he who had so much success in Popular Music spheres during the early 2000s. It is not yet known who will be playing “Beauty”. The production is, however, an encouraging sign of inventive programming at the Theatre, which has in the past (with all other seaside theatres) been vulnerable to becoming irrelevant. Now, it seems to be receptive to the successes at Cromer, suggesting that these pier theatres have a fairly optimistic future.
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Event Page
Clacton Pier – 2026 Events
Straight away, the management at Clacton Pier have unveiled their intentions for 2026 events programming. This will commence during February and extend into the Christmas period. There will be themed and character events at relevant times of year, with Easter rabbits in April, grotesque horrors in October, and pirates in May (since everyone knows that May is when the pirates come out to play… “mayday” and all that). Aside from this there will be live music festivals and carnivals during the summer, and then the deluge of beer will descend on the pier in October. I hope these events are courted with good weather and prove to be a success for the pier.
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Deal Pier – Minor Storm Damage
The lower deck of Deal Pier has suffered damage from the recent storms, mostly being restricted to the loss of some of the perimeter decking boards and railings. Access to the deck will remain closed until the necessary repairs have been made, and it is not yet established when this will take place. Certainly, the news article’s dramatic blurt of “part of iconic pier closed indefinitely” is quite sensationalist and the damage would seem to be easily repairable. Charles Franklin, local to Deal, has kindly provided a photograph which shows the damage caused.
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Southport Pier – Sefton Council Submits Business Case for Funding Application
It has been announced the Sefton Council have initiated effectively the final stage prior to being granted the £20 million government funding, this being the submission of a full business case on the ongoing operation and maintenance of the restored pier. It is expected that the provided documentation will be assessed by Department for Business and Trade later in January, and it is still hoped that work can begin early this year. Sefton Council continue to insist that they are ready to begin work immediately once the funding is provided. On this basis, they are presently poised on the start line, ready to burst forward towards an anticipated 2027 reopening.
The second link gives a highly optimistic forcast for 2026 from Serena Silcock-Prince, head of Silcock Leisure Group and responsible for much of the recent campaigning for the pier’s reopening.
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Silcocks
Brighton Palace Pier – Promising Sale Interest
A welcome update on the ongoing sales process has been provided by Anne Ackford, CEO of Brighton Palace Pier Group. Over 40 expressions of interest have so far been received, and she was pleased that they broadly were keen to respect the heritage of the pier and maintain its existing mode of operation as a nationally-important tourist attraction. Hopefully these prospective buyers will also be interested to take the pier’s offerings in new ways too. Naturally the process is still in an early state and the prospective buyers will not become publicly known any time soon, but the update is very encouraging.
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Mumbles Pier – A Definitive Update on Things
The recent difficulties facing the owners of Mumbles Pier have occasionally been publicised; this Telegraph article collates together the recent sequence of events and sees the Bollom Brothers reflect on their mixed fortunes in recent years. Despite the troubled undertones, it is clear that they have a very real attachment to the pier and that this will maintain their efforts in working to make it a success. Mumbles Pier is also in an unusual situation of having been operated by the same family for nearly 80 years, making the emotional ties naturally stronger. Much emphasis is placed in the article on the questionable economic sense in seaside piers: a “financially absurd” operation. Indeed there are easier ways of making a profit from a business: in online marketing or cheap HMO conversions… but for some, there is clearly more than merely the need to make money. Also emphasised is the problem of transferring the custodianship of the British pier legacy upon the next generation, and with the Bolloms seemingly ruling out the prospect of having their young sons take over as managers in the future (for the sake of their wellbeing!), this problem of inheritance may well affect Mumbles too in the distant future.
Despite the recent trouble following the fires of 2022 and 2024 (both affecting the landside building), the most recent intention from the owners remains to “work through and get [the restoration] done”. Their pre-2020 restoration work has indeed been exemplary, and if this can be resumed in the future, the pier will be in a good place.
Ultimately, one question which remains is whether the seaside pier legacy can truly be a self-sufficient and sustainable economic entity, able to hold against the physical environmental pressures of their marine situation, made worse by the now-considerable age of these decidedly mortal structures.
Whilst considering this Mumbles feature, I noticed that “Nansi” is no longer on the pier. This fibreglass monkey, originally conceived as a supporting structure for two children’s swings, is famous for its notorious and criminal-initiated transformation from a family-friendly monkey-man to half-nude tart for use in a Brighton stripping club. It was promptly reinstated as a family-friendly pier sideshow for many years, but has recently succumbed to considerable damage. It was removed from the pier shortly after 2023 and comprehensively repaired and “re-branded”. It is now owned by Swansea-based furniture manufacturer “Chunk Monkey”, and has been affixed to a prominant area of the showroom roof. A passing remark of its new home is perhaps warranted, which is a residential street corner on Western Street. It has recently been colourfully reinvigorated as a courtyard for a number of small businesses: a very commendable development.
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The Monkey
Clacton Pier – 2026 Recruitments
It is quite unusual for seaside piers to be so publicly forthcoming about their recruitment drives, but of course, Clacton Pier is by all accounts a leading light in Clacton’s economy and providing good employment to local people is shown to be of considerable importance in their online article. A recruitment fair will be held on the pier on Wednesday 21st January and both part-time and full-time positions will be offered. In peak operation, the pier employs 250 people.
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Isle of Wight Piers – 1984 Photographs
A small selection of monochrome photographs of Shanklin, Ventnor, Sandown and Ryde Piers. The first two are of course lost, damaged by hurricanes and fires during the course of the mid-1980s and demolished by 1993. Ventnor’s photographs form a particularly unfortunate spectacle, with much of the attractive “Festival-style” reconstruction of the 1950s swept away in favour of an amusements tunnel (some of the displaced “atomic” shelters were relocated on the seafront for a time) At the time of photographing, it was effectively condemned and partially closed. Shanklin had perhaps slightly better prospects, but being jammed with a dense lineage of sheds, was quite unsightly by this point. Also visible in its photograph is the Shanklin Lift of 1958; not especially attractive either Sandown pier superficially appears as it does today, except that the shoreward building was still in use as a theatre at this point. Ryde’s photograph shows a greater mixture of buildings than today, including more evidence of the old tramway and the supporting piles for the Pavilion.
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Weston Birnbeck Pier – Progress Update
North Somerset Council have reported again on the ongoing progress at the landside regions of the pier site. The landside buildings are presently in the progress of restorations, and groundworks are ongoing to allow for new infrastructure to be installed for the benefit of the entire pier site.
Most people will certainly be most interested on when the pier structure itself will be worked on, and the Council expect that the necessary cranes and construction plant will begin to arrive at the pier in the next month. All of this is, as usual, monitorable on the Birnbeck Pier Webcam (at the time of writing, it seems to be in a fully-working state).
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Webcam
Great Yarmouth Britannia Pier – Theatre Shows and Recruitment Open Days
The Britannia Pier’s Theatre Manager gives an impressive overview of the proposed theatre programming for 2026, it being suggested that about 140 shows will be held during this year, including the previously-reported Christmas Pantomime show. This is a very welcome initiative which makes the best of the pier’s heritage, during a period where pier theatres have become very scarce and vulnerable. Also mentioned in this article, just a week after Clacton’s own, are upcoming recruitment open days, to be held on the 2nd and 3rd of February.
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Clacton Pier – An Award for a Long-Term Employee
Head of Coin Operation Services, Alan Walker, recently celebrated his 80th birthday and has worked for Clacton Pier for about 10 years; his entire career in the amusements trade extends towards 50 years. He has just been given a BACTA award for “Seaside Hero”, in recognition of his continuous work over such a long time period. The pier management are of course delighted to have had such a skillful technician to manage their amusement machines, and are equally delighted to know that he has no intention to retire any time soon.
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Civic Centre, Swansea – Proposal for a Pier (amongst other things)
Computer-generated visualisations have been released by Swansea City Council in relation to a proposed masterplan for the regeneration of the Civic Centre zone of Swansea’s seafront. This forms a preview to a public consultation to be held as a local display, starting on the 28th January and continuing throughout February. This masterplan has been produced by Urban Splash and centres around the refurbishment and regeneration of Swansea’s Civic Centre (Brutalism from 1982, previously threatened from demolition). The refurbishment of the building as against demolition is a very welcome strategy. Of most relevance to the NPS, of course, is the notional inclusion of a “pier” in the proposals, which neatly forms a termination to a new street connecting the city to the sea. In the visualisations thus far released, the pier seems rather flimsy and modest in scale, but with some further development it could prove to be a most attractive element of the masterplan.
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Urban Splash
Cromer Pier – A Day of Antiques
On Wednesday 6th May, the antiques specialist and television presenter Paul Martin will be accepting valuations of small handheld antiques from members of the public in the Theatre Bar of Cromer Pier. Following this will be a talk in the Theatre, with Paul talking about his lengthy career in antiques as well as discussing the items brought to his attention earlier in the day. In anticipating for the event, Paul aptly notes the pleasing combination of these antiques being valued and displayed on a decidedly antique Victorian structure, in coastal surroundings equally notable for their history.
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Event
Teignmouth Pier – Structural Collapse
Storm Ingrid hit the South-West coast on Saturday and resulted in the collapse of much of Teignmouth Pier’s remaining deck structure. News of this spread rapidly and courted widespread dismay, comparable with the last major pier collapses at Colwyn Bay during February 2017. The majority of the seaward deck has been closed to the public since 2014, damaged by storms during that year, and the widened pier head had been in a partially stripped state from 2020 onwards, following proposals for its demolition. Needless to say, this seaward deck, and particularly the pier head, has not received any form of structural maintenance over the last decade. This week saw the cruel consequence of discontinuing ongoing maintenance of a pier structure, and the public response to this has been both intense and polarised.
The context surrounding the present situation is complex and delicate. The Brenner family, owner of the pier for many decades, have a considerable emotional attachment to the pier and have invested in much structural repair to the shoreward end, but it would seem that their present-day commercial concerns extend little beyond the operation of the amusement arcade and food kiosks; a business probably too small to support ongoing maintenance of the entire pier structure. The amusements themselves are well-protected by under-deck defences the family have invested in about 10 years ago (see PIERS issue 122), but the limited finances have forced the seaward end to be largely neglected. So while Teignmouth Pier presently offers a reasonable amusement arcade, seemingly the only one in Teignmouth, as a classic Victorian seaside pier it is in considerable danger of loss. In view of this unfortunate course of action the owners have been forced to take, it is quite ironic that the following quote can be found on the pier website:
“We should be proud of our heritage and fight to keep it. Nearly all the remaining piers are over 100 years old, and we are an English instituation that shouldn’t be allowed to crumble into the sea and be forgotten.”
The pier’s current structural plight is, of course, partially the result of external factors. This part of the coastline is notorious for its exposure to the worst of the country’s stormy weather conditions, and it is probably fair to say that yearly Winter storms are gradually increasing in their intensity as Climate Change gently imposes itself on the planet’s natural weather cycles. Sand loss across Teignmouth Beach has also become a considerable issue and more funding has had to be devoted to strengthening and encasing the pier’s iron piles. That said, these things are usually anticipated hazards associated with operating a seaside pier. Related to this, neighbouring Paignton Pier gave a statement of support to Teignmouth Pier, while setting out the meticulous measures they had initiated at the pier to prevent a similar catastrophe happening there. With photographs of Paignton’s pier bedecked with rows upon rows of brand-new cross-bracing, one cannot help but to see this post also as a gentle gesture of “this is how it is done”.
Above all, notwithstanding the collapse, Teignmouth Pier has not been a “star pier” in quite some time. It has received no mention in the newsletter, on account of seemingly no development or news stories covering it, since 2022. Things were different decades ago, when it was vigorously involved in Year of the Pier 1996 and won third place in the first Pier of the Year awards in 1997. Much investment in the amusement arcades and outer decking took place during the early 2000s. At present, the pier, stagnant in its development and sitting with a 3.0-star rating on Tripadvisor, does not feel like the “jewel in the crown” of Teignmouth which all seaside piers were built to be. With a forward-thinking approach and sufficient funding, embracing all the possible outlets and attractions that a seaside pier could provide (more than solely an amusement arcade), may give the pier a chance to survive long into the future and promote a positive reputation deserving of such a venerable structure. Many people have impulsively looked to the cases at Clevedon, Hastings, Herne Bay, etc, for examples on how the pier could be regenerated and improved. This, of course, necessitates the pier coming under public/charity ownership, a suggestion materialising like a litany in the public comments.
For now, the owners have regularly posted helpful updates on their Facebook page and, amongst these, is a fundraiser page to support their efforts in beginning essential repairs to the “working” parts of the pier. There is a lot of written material to contemplate in these posts, and much more in the way of public comments, some of which give some fair and level-headed opinions on the matter. Most recently, a structural survey has been posted for public viewing. This survey was conducted in the days following the collapse, a rather basic visual survey of the pier superstructure. The purpose of this was to ascertain whether the amusement arcade is in a suitable state for re-opening to the public. The first 18m of the amusements building can be reopened immediately, but zones beyond the 18m fire-escape threshold from the front entrance will be restricted for the time being. Once the decking has been repaired to the external fire escape passages, it will be re-opened.
This matter warrants much careful contemplation from all who are interested in the preservation of seaside piers. Read through the many update posts, statements and comments again and again. Read through the fundraising page and consider giving a donation if you wish, and if at all possible, come to see Teignmouth Pier this year (as I am planning to do) since it will presently be in a state of flux. At best, it could be approaching the early stages of a groundbreaking rejuvination. At worst, the rest of the seaward deck might be gone by the end of the year and the pier officially becomes an “amusement arcade on legs”.
(Update: having just finished writing this on Thursday evening, a petition (counter-petition, if you will) has gone online to campaign for Teignbridge Council to organise a Compulsory Purchase Order against the owners, allowing the pier to enter public ownership and be subject to funding from heritage grants. Link provided below – prepare for an A.I-generated banner image.)
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Teignmouth Pier Facebook Posts (very important)
Fundraising Page
Counter-Petition
Paignton Pier’s Statement/photographs
South Shields Pier – Storm Damage
South Shields Pier (Port of Tyne) has also suffered a localised collapse on account of Storm Ingrid. This follows repairs to the pier to rectify damages caused by Storm Babet several years ago.
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Great Yarmouth Wellington Pier – Construction of Amusements Extension
Photographs of the ongoing construction work with regards to the South extension to the “Family Entertainment Centre”.
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Fleetwood Pier – CIC Formed
A Community Interest Company (CIC) “Fleetwood People’s Pier” has been formed, following the initial expressions of interest by various major figures around Fleetwood towards a rejuvination of the Fleetwood Pier site. This movement has been led by Jane Couch MBE, former boxer. Initial suggestions regarding the proposal include a “social hub/cafe”, market stalls, etc, on the foreshore, and into the sea, a jetty. Not a pier, but a jetty. At this early stage, there are naturally no plans to see, but please visit the CIC’s Facebook page and post a comment if you have any suggestions or wish to show support for this initiative.
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Facebook Page