The Promenade Pier was opened in May 1893. The total
length was 900 feet, and for the first 640 feet it
was 30 feet wide, the width increasing to 100 feet
at the pier head where it was planned to build a pavilion.
This pavilion would be large enough to accommodate
1,000 people, with an auditorium, stage, dining room
and top deck promenade.
Before work could commence on the pavilion the pier
suffered the first of two set-backs. With the pier
only six months old a ship collided with the seaward
end which delayed construction of the pavilion. In
November 1895, heavy seas carried away two of the
piles of the pier and, in that weakened condition,
other piers and girders collapsed. Repairs to the
100 ft section proved no easy task, and it was not
until 1897 that the pavilion was finally built.
The pier offered promenade facilities and summer concerts
in the pavilion until 1913 when it was purchased by
the Admiralty to serve as a naval landing stage. Used
as such during the
First
World War, it never returned to public use. The
pier was finally demolished in 1927.
