The West Pier, Brighton

The Liberal Democrat Conference has been held in Brighton regularly in recent years, which has given regular attenders the chance to observe the sad and progressive decline of the West Pier. Even the enormous flocks of starlings which used to inhabit the ruins seems to have left now.

It wasn't always like this, as this West Pier website tells.

It was the second leisure pier to be built in Britain and one of only two to be Grade I listed. It was originally built as a simple promenade, but eventually acquired a bandstand, a theatre a 1400-seat concert hall. The addition of new landing stages in 1894 made it possible for steamboats to use the pier as a terminus for travel to France, the Isle of Wight, Bournemouth, Weymouth and Dover.

In the Edwardian era novelties and shows took place on the end of the pier. A manacled strongman used to dive into the sea on a bicycle with his clothes aflame. These shows were stopped when a crowd of hundreds saw him drown one day.

In its 1920s the pier had its own resident orchestra - Elgar conducted it. The theatre presented plays, pantomimes and ballets all year round. In its heyday, it attracted 2 million visitors a year.
After that, the West Pier's career seems to have been one of gentle decline. It is hard to find out much about its later history, but you can see it in the films Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) and Carry on Girls (1973).

The pier closed in 1975 and there have been plans to restore and reopen it ever since, even thought the sea was systematically reclaiming it. But it became an inconvenient building and, as inconvenient buildings have a way of doing, it burnt down.

More information and links at Wikipedia.