The Building of Bournemouth Pier

The Commissioners Fulfil their Obligations

Jul 2, 2009

The Bournemouth Improvement Act 1856 included the requirement to build a pier. The first one was dogged by bad luck. The second was more fortunate.

The Improvement Act of 1856 gave the Commissioners of the growing seaside town of Bournemouth powers to borrow up to £5000 for the construction of a pier in the town. There was also a stipulation within it that said the pier had to be constructed within five years of the passing of the Act.

In December 1858 the Commissioners agreed that they would take out a loan and begin building the pier. In early 1859 the mechanical and civil engineer, George Rennie, was commissioned to design it. He came up with the idea of a wooden pier that would be 1000 feet long and 15 feet wide with a T-shaped end. It would cost approximately £4000.00.

The Building of Bournemouth Pier Begins

The plan was agreed and in May 1859, the tender by the Newcastle on Tyne engineer, David Thornbury, was accepted. He was contracted to build it for a cost of £3418. Thornbury had considerable experience in building structures in water. He had been successful in the building of a new public dock on the Tyne just south of North Shields.

But the new pier seemed to be dogged by bad luck. Work on it commenced that year but it had not got very far before a violent storm destroyed everything and the builders had to start again from scratch. Then when a stage payment was due, the bank with which the Commissioners had deposited the pier money failed. Only by getting an advance from another bank were they able to honour the payment.

The Wooden Pier of Bournemouth

But finally the pier was completed in the autumn of 1861 and a grand official opening was arranged. Sir George and Lady Gervis were involved and the good lady broke a bottle of wine on its timbers. There was a large procession, a twenty one gun salute and the Union Jack was unfurled whilst the gathered crowds sang the National Anthem. This was followed by a splendid dinner at the Belle Vue Hotel.

However, the woes surrounding the unlucky pier were not over. That very same winter, another storm arrived and it was badly damaged. The Commissioners arranged for its repair but it ended up losing 300 feet. In 1866, the wooden piles needed to be replaced with iron because they were being eaten away by shipworm. In 1867 yet another tempest swept along the coast and another 100 feet of the structure was gone.

This final calamity meant that the pier was now not long enough for the steam pleasure boats to moor up against so after much debate, in 1877, the Commissioners came to the realisation that they needed to build a completely new pier. Their request to government to borrow money to build a new one was granted in 1878.

The Second Bournemouth Pier

The second pier was designed by Eugenius Birch (an ingenious marine architect and designer) and was to be 45 feet wide at a cost of £38,075. This pier fared much better luck wise and was formally opened in August of 1880 by the Lord Mayor of London. Its final dimensions were 835 feet long, 600 of which were 35 feet wide and the rest was 110 feet wide.

In 1909, the landing stage at the end of the pier was widened. This extension was also opened by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir George Wyatt Truscott. Sir George was, coincidentally, the son of the Lord Mayor of London who had opened the pier on its completion twenty nine years previously.

Bournemouth Pier Post War developments.

As with Boscombe Pier, a section of Bournemouth pier was blown up at the start of WW2 to prevent it affording access to the land by the enemy. After the war, it needed extensive rework and so it was redeveloped. The Pier Theatre opened at the end of it in 1960.

In the early 2000s the current Bournemouth Borough Council advertised for a developer to take responsibility for the pier. However, the idea was dropped when it became obvious that there would be little financial return because of the requirement on the developer over its structure. So the Council resolved to retain responsibility for the pier and its fabric and to reinvest in it. Refurbishment of it began in 2006.

The copyright of the article The Building of Bournemouth Pier in Modern British History is owned by Elaine Findlay. Permission to republish The Building of Bournemouth Pier in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.