Save our seaside: Hastings Pier, East Sussex

We've launched a campaign to rescue once-glorious seaside buildings that now sit empty and abandoned. Help us save those at risk by joining forces with Coast and other campaigners to preserve our seaside heritage for future generations to enjoy.

Our advisor

Each case study has been sourced and written by Allan Brodie, an architectural historian who specialises in the study of seaside resorts. He is the author of four books on the seaside and has published papers on subjects as diverse as seaside resorts in the 18th century and holiday camps.

Case six: Hastings Pier, East Sussex

Campaign update, Nov 2010: Hastings Borough Council were to hand ownership to the Hastings Pier & White Rock Trust for its renovation and reopening. However, a major fire in October has put the pier’s future in doubt.

At the height of the Victorian seaside boom, Hastings employed the prolific designer Eugenius Birch to create its new pier. Of the hundred piers built during the heyday of the seaside, he was responsible for designing 14. The one at Hastings opened officially on 5 August 1872, the first-ever August Bank Holiday.

Like others, this 275-metre-long pier was built on cast-iron columns screwed into the seabed. These supported a wooden deck on which various structures were placed, including an oriental-style pavilion that could hold 2,000 theatregoers. Fire consumed this building in 1917 and it was replaced in 1926 by a new theatre. In the 1960s and 70s, it played host to bands, including the Rolling Stones, The Who and Pink Floyd, and in 1976 the pier was listed as a Grade II structure.

It's come to this...

In the 1980s, the state of the pier began to decline, a result of storm damage in 1983 and 1987, and a lack of basic maintenance. In 2006, Hastings Borough Council was forced to close it when parts of the structure started to fall off. It partially reopened in July 2007 when a tenant and the council spent £300,000 to strengthen the pier, but further storm damage led to its total closure by late 2008. A year later, the owners of Weston-super-Mare's pier ceased their interest in buying Hastings' from its Panamanian-registered owners. Perhaps they were intimidated by the prospect of having to spend up to £50 million to restore and run it, or was it the engineer's report ringing in their ears that one major storm could destroy the whole structure?

What can be done?

In January 2008, the Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust (HPWRT) was formed to restore the pier and guarantee its future for the community. To achieve this, it has tried to get local, cross-party support to persuade the local authority to compulsorily purchase the pier. This would allow the trust to carry out its ambitious, community-based restoration scheme, using apprentices and trainees to help reduce the huge costs to more manageable levels. In March 2010, HPWRT obtained a £75,000 grant to undertake the feasibility study and complete the business plan.

What can we do?

The key to rescuing Hastings Pier is to find a local, sustainable solution to restore it and a long-term purpose to guarantee its future. HPWRT lobbies the local authority and politicians, and raises money to begin the process of reviving the pier. To follow its progress, help or make a donation, visit www.hpwrt.co.uk and join the Facebook group, too.