The Royal Suspension Chain Pier

The Royal Suspension Chain Pier

Coordinates: 50°49′06″N 0°07′51″W / 50.81833°N 0.13083°W / 50.81833; -0.13083

Brighton beach with the Chain Pier in the background. By John Constable c.1824
Oak foundation piles of the Royal Suspension Chain Pier Brighton and Brighton Pier in the background in 2010.
Signal cannon from the Chain Pier, situated on the Palace Pier
Oak foundation piles and Purbeck "Marble" blocks
Oak foundation pile
In the distance, just above the tip of the breakwater/groyne, traces of the next pylon foundations can be seen.

The Royal Suspension Chain Pier was the first major pier built in Brighton, England. Generally known as the Chain Pier, it was designed by Captain Samuel Brown rn and built in 1823.[1] The pier was primarily intended as a landing stage for packet boats to Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, but it also featured a small number of attractions including (initially) a camera obscura. An esplanade with an entrance toll-booth controlled access to the pier which was roughly in line with the New Steine. Turner and Constable both made paintings of the pier, King William IV landed on it, and it was even the subject of a song.

The Chain Pier co-existed with the later West Pier, but a condition to build the Palace Pier was that the builders would dismantle the Chain Pier. They were saved this task by a storm which destroyed the already closed and rather decrepit pier on December 4, 1896.

The remains of some of the pier's oak piles, sunk ten feet into bedrock, can still be seen at the most extreme low tides. Masonry blocks can also be seen. It is possible that these are Purbeck "Marble", a limestone that can be polished like marble, and which was quarried in the nearby county of Dorset. (The 1823 account of the pier even mis-describes this hard limestone as a "granite".) One description states that this was used on at least part of the pier's decking.[1] Alternatively, the account of the construction states that harder bedrock (than the predominant chalk) was encountered, necessitating heavier iron caps to the timber piles, and so the masonry blocks may be naturally, locally occurring, debris.

The entrance Kiosks and signal cannon of the pier are still intact, and are now used as small shops on the Palace Pier ("Brighton Pier"). The Plaque commemorating this has however been removed from the Kiosks, but remains on the cannon.

On 5th September 2010 the Mayor of Brighton & Hove City Council unveiled a replica tablet commemorating the Chain Pier. The tablet is fixed to the wall along Max Miller Walk exactly opposite the site of the Pier. Brighton & Hove City Council & the Max Miller Appreciation Society jointly funded the tablet, which replaces an original tablet that went missing some years ago.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Drewry, Charles Stewart (1832). A Memoir of Suspension Bridges: Comprising The History Of Their Origin And Progress. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman. pp. 69–74, and Plates. http://books.google.com/books?id=Hw8LAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA69. Retrieved 2009-06-13. 

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Royal Pavilion — Brighton Pavilion redirects here. For the electoral division, see Brighton Pavilion (UK Parliament constituency). Coordinates: 50°49′23″N 0°08′15″W / 50.82306°N 0.1375°W …   Wikipedia

  • Samuel Brown (Royal Navy officer) — This article is about the English naval officer, engineer and inventor. See Samuel Brown for other persons of the same name. Captain Samuel Brown (1776 13 March 1852) was an early pioneer of chain design and manufacture and of suspension bridge… …   Wikipedia

  • Brighton Pier — Infobox Pier Pier name=Brighton Marine Palace and Pier caption=Brighton Pier official name=Brighton Marine Palace and Pier carries= crosses= locale= type= Pleasure Pier maint= id= design= R. St George Moore construction= owner= mainspan= length=… …   Wikipedia

  • Chapel Royal, Brighton — Chapel Royal, Brighton …   Wikipedia

  • Church of the Annunciation, Brighton — Church of the Annunciation, Brighton …   Wikipedia

  • Church of the Good Shepherd, Brighton — Church of the Good Shepherd …   Wikipedia

  • Church of the Sacred Heart, Hove — Church of the Sacred Heart The church from the east …   Wikipedia

  • West Pier — Infobox Pier Pier name= West Pier caption= West Pier on fire in March 2003 official name= West Pier carries= crosses= locale= Brighton type= Pleasure Pier maint= id= design= Eugenius Birch construction= owner= West Pier Trust mainspan= length=… …   Wikipedia

  • West Pier — El West Pier es uno de dos muelles actuales en Brighton (Sussex). Fue construido por Eugenius Birch en 1866, pero fue cerrado desde 1975 y se ha ido deteriorando desde entonces. El muelle está esperando una renovación, que no ha tenido lugar… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Brighton Pier — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda El Palacio Marina de Brighton es un Pleasure Pier (Muelle de Recreo) en Brighton, condado de Sussex, Inglaterra. Generalmente se le conocía como The Palace Pier, el Muelle Palacio, pero, en el año 2000, la empresa,… …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”