Brighton West Pier

The West Pier rises from the English Channel as a jagged, skeletal silhouette of rusted iron and charred steel. Designed by the celebrated Victorian engineer Eugenius Birch, it opened in eighteen sixty-six as a grand promenade stretching eleven hundred and fifteen feet into the sea. Its cast-iron columns were innovative for their time, screwed directly into the seabed rather than driven in, creating a stable platform for concert halls and ornate kiosks.