Short documentary about Brighton's Victorian landmark. Filmed in 2003 when the pier was targeted by arsonists. Written and Directed by Level Films' Matt Crocker when he was at University way back when!
I have lived in Brighton 10 years and miss the pier that stood there all those years ago...I remember it used to be all lit up at night and looked beautiful. Its very sadly missed...I'm lucky to have seen it as it was. Thanks for the posting!
It has just lost another section. It's crazy that the Brighton Pier owners would resort to European Court's to object to saving such a landmark for reasons of fear alone. What possible case did they think they had? It would only increase business for them if they took it as friendly competition and engaged in working hard to ensure the Brighton sea front offered attractions that appealed to everyone. How sad!
I was only 3 years old when the pier closed, I wish I could have explored it before the fire. I remember it being lit up in the 1980's. None of the other piers I've seen come close to this.
Ah, sad, I lived opposite the West Pier in the late 80's, early 90's. I loved the red 'West Pier' letters. We used to sit out on the balcony, drink our morning coffee and look out onto the sea with the pier at the helm. So iconic!
I know who set fire to it. David Coverdale. I watched him that night just yards from the pier at the Brighton Centre. He said quote. “ you didn’t have to give me smoke on the water”. Get it?. So I will always link those two events. The fire and his white snake show.
I was working in Brighton at the time of the fire so remember how special the pier is,i hope seeing as it was grade 1 listed building that it is rebuilt as part of our heritage.
this is a manificient docu. 5* I kinda have an obsession with the west pier, it fascinates me to no end. I always thought it was the better of the two piers, the one with the most character. It disheartens me to see what mindless vandals did to it. I often wonder if they did work for the other pier and maybe though plans to bring it back to life would jepodise their jobs if it were direct competition. It would of however made a great theatre or concert hall housing modern acts.
I used to live on the building with glass windows just opposite the west pier in 1996. Back then the light was still on at night on the pier. Sad it's gone now.
Sad😥ghost,hauntingly beautiful home to starlings.It has a strange attractive quality.Like an unsolved crime it waits for justice in the waves as thousands of people wander by.
Leave the pier as it is If you are to restore it, it wouldn't be the same Replacing everything except the framework,That pier is history Leave it as it is and sadly time will come and it will go (Im not saying it will happen in the next 20 years or so) So leave the pier and let it be an icon of brighton
It's an national disgraceful the way the pier was let to go to ruin. I had a couple of washed pieces of wood from the west pier, unfortunately left at my ex girlfriends flat.
It should be rebuilt with concert hall, theatre, eateries. If the owners of Brighton Pier don't like the competition too bad, Brighton gets enough visitors to sustain two piers particularly if they offer different attractions. This is a wealthy country, we waste vast amounts on far more pointless projects, some of which never even finally get implemented (eg London's absurd garden bridge), the West Pier is part of the UK's heritage it would be to everyone's benefit to restore it.
i lived at the convent in hove 1976 , i can always remember a great flock of starlings, tens of thousands of them doing their swarm in the sky , a real spectacle of nature to behold, and then they would settle for the night on the west pier in safety, i wonder know where they go to now its gone
so sad... its got even worst i visted last weekend... the pier has no walk way the concert hall is gone. all that stands is the pillars for the walkway and the shell of the main part of the pier... so sad :(
No I bet the owners of the Brighton palace pier didn't want to quote or appear in your film. Everyone knows to set the poor ole west pier alight but unfortunately can't prove it. The west pier is now just a skeleton slowly rotting out in the sea it's so sad to see.😢😡
I will not be stepping foot on Brighton pier ever again now that I have seen this video. What a tragedy that the west pier has gone. The people that done this are pure scum, I hope they burn in hell.
So sad. The arson was definite not suspected, I saw a video of a bloke in a boat shoot a flaming arrow right onto the roof of the concert hall which started it`s final demise.
I wish I was a billionaire, so I could build a replica of the west pier with fixtures and fittings that looks the same as the original. Such a shame when that happens to our wonderful structures.
Shame... The old theatre looked great. I wish they could re built it as it was, with a cinema etc in it. I live in Dieppe on the other side of the channel. That would be one more reason to cross the see more often
So sad how we lost such a wonderful Pier now look what we've got the horrible i360 that the Council gave the company that built it a loan of over 30 million at no rate of interest! And its still not making enough money to pay the loan back!
How could it come to this? The reasons are clear... The ugly Brighton Pier and even that ridiculous 360view tower are never an equivalent to that historic building. Shame on a great nation for letting all this happen! ( from Germany)
