The End Of The Pier Show

There are many pleasure piers along the British coastline; sadly they all seem to be particularly prone to catching fire or suffering some other calamity. Weston-Super-Mare, Great Yarmouth, Eastbourne, Brighton and Colwyn Bay have all been stricken by fire and Southend's famous pier, the longest pleasure pier in the world at 1.34 miles, has suffered several fires including the dramatic blaze in 1959 when three hundred people had to be rescued after being cut off.  Among others, Southend pier was struck by the MV Kingsabbey in 1986, creating a 70 foot gap and in 1947 Penarth pier was hit by the Canadian merchant ship, Port Royal Park, a vessel of over 7,000 tons.

Fortunately, each time Southend pier has suffered a blaze it has been restored, although it has to be said that there is now less of a reason to walk to the end than there was, apart from the pleasure of the walk itself, as there is now little at the end of the pier apart from a cafe and the lifeboat station. Still, I'm glad that it has been consistently rebuilt as Val and I visit Southend several times a year and frequently walk to the end of the pier, sometimes returning to the shore by train if the weather is not too good. On more than one occasion we've walked to the end in a howling gale and been glad of the train, although one New Year's Day we walked the length of the pier and the weather was more clement than it can be in summer. Walking the pier is something I've been doing on and off since I was a child. When I was very young and my parents could not afford a holiday away somewhere, we would go out for days during the school summer holidays, sometimes to the museums in London but frequently to Southend and I have many happy memories of the train ride to the coast and walking along the seafront.

The Sir John Betjemen, the train on Southend Pier. Betjemen said 

"the Pier is Southend, Southend is the Pier"

Other piers have been less fortunate than Southend; many are now derelict, including Brighton's West Pier. Those that have been rebuilt or restored owe much to the efforts of local people raising funds for their renovation, and even now many rely on the admission charged to those who promenade along them, one reason why I think it important to visit seaside piers, to maintain this important part of our heritage. It is sad to visit Herne Bay for example and see the stump of the pier that is all that remains usable, with the pier head stranded hundreds of yards out to sea. Many of the piers that remain have lost a little of their glitz and glory, the music hall shows that were once a common attraction are now much fewer.

Southend Pier, from the PS Waverley.

Apart from the walk on the pier, those childhood visits to Southend normally featured a few similar activities. You can't visit the seaside without occasionally partaking of fish and chips and we would normally go to The Royal Fish Bar, which I'm pleased to say is still there, although I haven't eaten there for years...maybe next time. A visit to Southend with my parents would also usually mean a visit to the cockle sheds at Leigh where my Dad would indulge in some seafood, although this, accompanied by a pint or two of beer, an ice cream and the aforementioned fish and chips would often result in him feeling a bit queasy by the time we returned home. And I can still remember, on those walks as a child, looking down through the gaps between the boards, seeing the water and fearing, irrationally, that I might fall through a rotten board into the sea.

Leigh, famed for its cockle sheds.

We went to other seaside resorts when I was young. Folkestone once when I was very small; I don't remember it at all, although there are some photographic memories, and Eastbourne springs to mind as being one of the last seaside holidays I took with my parents, I must have been about sixteen. Nowadays I'm more likely to visit the coast just for a day, in fact one of the last seaside holidays I took in this country was to Bournemouth with Val, just for a few days back in 1997, although we had been to Bexhill for our honeymoon two years previously. 

Me with my parents on some long ago beach holidays...

...and Val, at Bexhill. Note the warm clothes, gloves and ice cream!

There is nothing quite like a day at the coast, be it Southend or one of our other favourites, Whitstable, which is quite a contrast from the Essex town. Where Southend has a pier and amusements, Whitstable is a working fishing port with quaint back streets and unusual shops. Both have their charms, both have their appeal but in both places we like nothing better than a walk beside the sea.

Southend Pier opened in 1830 and became popular with visitors from the East End of London, so much so that the Victorians dubbed the town "Whitechapel-on-Sea" because of the number of visitors from that part of the capital. It might not attract the same numbers today, it went into decline during the 1960's when holidays abroad became more affordable, but 6.4 million people still visit the town each year and a great many of the will tread the wooden boards out to sea. I can't imagine a summer without a visit or two and the memories it evokes.