The seaside pier's rise and fall...

[Lucky13]

....will they rise again?

 

[stona]

I doubt it. There's still a few left, but those that fall into disrepair (or burn down) rarely get the investment needed to restore them. They're not quite the adventure they once were, Victorian ladies professed to feeling sea sick just walking down the original Brighton pier to board a steamer to France!
Cheers
Steve

 

[Lucky13]

Must have been a few, in their heyday?

 

[Wayne Little]

Sad though, to see them just....fade away....

 

[Capt. Vick]

Love the pavilion on the end. Any pictures of what the inside was like?

 

[stona]

Apparently about half our piers, that's roughly 50, still survive. I'm not sure what state many are in, certainly some are unsafe and access is not allowed. I happen to know that a few years ago there were just four 'end of pier' theatres left in the UK, hopefully there still are.
Anyone who has visited one of Britain's sea side town in recent years, with or without a pier, will know the decline that most have suffered as a result of the availability of package holidays to the sun, affordable for the average family since the 1960s. As a youngster I was a regular visitor to Margate, but a recent visit to the town was quite depressing, but not as bad as a recent visit to Southend. Some soldier on, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Cromer and a few others (not counting 'London by the sea' Brighton!) seem to do okay still. Those three still have thriving piers, Blackpool has three!
Cheers
Steve

 

[Torch]

There's places on the Jersey shore that were always fun to go too, but storms have played a huge role in destroying some of those piers.

 

[stona]

In the UK it's a decline in the seaside holiday. In 1951 25 million Britons holidayed in the UK (~100,000 abroad). In 1974 home based holiday number peaked at around 40 million (but by now 9 million were going abroad). By 1996 the gap had closed, 33million of us still took our annual holiday in the UK but 26 million now holidayed abroad. Although the decline in those holidaying at home from the peak numbers in the mid 1970s is not on the face of it catastrophic for the seaside towns the type of holidays people take has changed. Far fewer people take the 'kiss me quick/stick of rock' type holidays, sheltering behind a wind break on a pebbly beach. Many older people holiday in the UK and they are as likely to be found boating on the Broads, trekking around the lost gardens of Heligan or visiting York Minster as they are to be found on Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
Cheers
Steve