A Passion for Seaside Piers.

I've always had a passion for piers. I suspect it began on my first visits to the seaside as a child.

Southwold Pier

 I don't actually remember being on any pier at the time but sitting beneath eating sandwiches and feeling very cold.

Funnily enough I do remember piers from my teenage years and particularly nearly being thrown into the sea (don't ask!) from the one at Ryde on the Isle of Wight which, built in 1813/14, just happens to be the oldest of the Victorian pleasure piers. 

Last summer saw our family staying on the Welsh coast by Colwyn Bay. Languishing in the corner of the bay was a rather sad looking pier. You couldn't actually get to it. It was cordoned off and derelict. Built in 1900 the Victoria Pier had an interesting life, being burnt down twice and bankrupting it's owner. It had been so grand, but now seems to be a collection of mismatched pieces of scaffolding and rotten planks.

The Victoria Pier,
Colwyn Bay

Did you know there is a National Piers Society ? and Cleethorpes Pier was pier of the year for 2016?

I like piers that have a bit of entertainment on them, Cromer with the best End of the Pier Show I've ever seen, or the lovely shops and clock on the one at Southwold.

The Clock on Southwold Pier

These structures were built in a different era, for day trippers in clumsy clothes without mobile phones.

Mary Kemp
Half Term at Southwold
featuring the pier!

The gloriously gaudy pier at Great Yarmouth, alive and kicking!

I think a really nice thing to do would be to make a road trip around the country, visiting every pier, and being an artist I would like to sit and draw every single one!