Hastings Pier, 5 August 2022

Hastings Pier celebrated at 150 years: peerlessness remembered

The very first August Bank Holiday was in 1872. In Hastings, that was the day that Hastings Pier opened. 150 years later to the day, there was a party. Bernard McGinley reports.

On the first August Bank Holiday, in 1872, Hastings Pier was opened by Lord Grenville, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Foreign Secretary. The orientalist design was by Eugenius Birch. The pavilion was of a new type, with ornamental ironwork manufactured by the foundry of Robert Laidlaw of Glasgow. The prestige was widereaching.

Hastings Pier: still strutting its stuff

To commemorate and celebrate the occasion, a party was held this month, 150 years later to the day. Engineer-organisers Peter Wheeler and David Spooner arranged it, with supporters. There was a walkabout to see the Pier’s modern condition and setting.

150 years

The Pier has a rich history, some of it the subject of Archie Lauchlan’s phoenix documentary Re: A Pier. There was a fire in 1917, followed by new buildings. Early in the present century the Gritti Palace was a favourite spot on the Pier. Poor general maintenance forced closure however, and then the Pier burnt down again in October 2010. In August 2013 Hastings Borough Council compulsorily purchased Order the Pier for £1 from Panama-registered Ravenclaw Investments. Peter Wheeler and Council Leader Jeremy Birch made a symbolic re-entry to the Pier. Public support was noticeable. A crowdfunding campaign raised nearly £600,000. The Heritage Lottery Fund provided millions more. Hastings Borough Council, English Heritage and the Hastings Pier Charity co-operated to noticeable effect. 

By 2016 the Pier had been rebuilt and reopened, with a Birch Room in honour of two major benefactors. The design of the new Pier (by the dRMM practice) won the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize in 2017, the country’s top award.  

Winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2017

The Pier also won other prizes and regained its status as peerless before the enforced sale of 2018.  

The Pier

In celebration

At the White Rock Hotel, there was food and drink, and many pictures (on the walls and on the tables) showed aspects of the Pier’s history.  A raffle offered Pier-related prizes. There was Pier cake, beautifully wrapped in green ribbon and captioned:

The Peerless Pier
150 Today

The importance of the Pier to Hastings (and visitors) was much discussed. It remains a central attraction of the town.

The Pier engineers’ employment tribunal case was reported in HOT in May, and more recently in Private Eye No 1578 (p22).

Will Hastings Pier last another 150 years? Maintenance of the substructure will be a key feature of its survival.

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