Dover: Lock and Key of the Kingdom

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.