The Promenade Pier c.1900.
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.
