Pierdom | DMB Media – Worldwide project and personal career management

Simon Roberts travelled Britain’s coastline to celebrate these monuments to Victorian engineering and eccentricity.

“There used to be about a hundred piers around Britain’s coastline, but nearly half have been lost and others are now under threat. Most of the survivors have life stories full of drama and narrow escapes, usually involving fierce weather, boat strikes, fires and the practice of ‘sectioning’ in the Second World War, when many piers on the east and south coasts were partly dismantled to prevent them being used as landing stages by the Germans. Any damage or loss is felt acutely. The slow death of Birch’s West Pier in Brighton has been a local and national tragedy (despite much talk of a replacement). Last year’s fire at Hastings pier was another keenly felt disaster, though it has recently secured Heritage Lottery funding to rebuild. Some people have talked of the death of the pier, others of their rebirth – witness the£39 million restoration of Weston-super-Mare’s Grand Pier, which opened last October. The truth lies somewhere in between, and Britain’s piers fight on, still drawing us in. Only the hardest heart could resist.” Dominic Bradbury, Saturday Telegraph.

You can read the full article by Bradbury here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8565453/Boardwalk-empire-Britains-pleasure-piers.html