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Brighton Pier

Photo:Palace Pier

Palace Pier

Walking along the seafront after lunch
By Jo Fuller

Brighton Pier will always be to me The Palace Pier.  As a child my father used to take me for a walk along the seafront every Sunday after lunch, the Pier being our final destination.

Trying to avoid the gaps!
I have wonderful memories of walking along the decking avoiding the gaps, case I should slip through to meet my fate before having had a go on the 2p slot machines and a bag of chips!

The tale of the mysterious eel
I also remember an urban myth regarding an enormous conga eel that supposedly lives/lived in the water between the Pier and the groin to the left (Hove side), the eel apparently used to feed off small children that dared to paddle at this particular spot. There is a hole in the wall of the groin with some flimsy metal caging over the entrance, this is where the eel would lay in wait for its victims."

This page was added on 22/03/2006.

Comments:

I also was taken on the pier as a child and remember the Hall of Mirrors and The Ghost Train which I was terrified of - there was a skeleton hanging out of the wall. I also used to be scared of the gaps in the pier floor! It was 2d when I was a kid.
By Sue Burtenshaw (19/07/2005)
Thanks for a beautiful view of the Palace Pier Theatre building just prior to its sad demolition. I was only fifteen in '86, but was old enough to sense the town's loss.
By Sam Flowers (22/10/2005)
It is the most beautiful place!!!!! I love Brighton
By Idoia (16/12/2005)
Thanks for the photograph of Palace Pier. I have a photograph from the 1970s, whose location I could not remember, and have searched in vain until I found your picture. Thank You.
By David J Turner (28/04/2006)

I was told the tale of the 'huge Conger eel' too and I never swam there!  In fact the 'tunnel' covered with a grating is the seaward outlet of an underground stream that I think is called the 'Wellsbourne' and whch flows down Lewes Road with an underground tributary flowing down London Road joining it south of St. Peter's Church.

By Adrian Baron (25/01/2007)

Next to the Royal Pavilian, The Pier is Brighton and as a boy in the fifties and sixties it had everything. Because money was tight on "special" occasions (birthdays) I was allowed to have a ride on the timber speed boat that use to speed up and down the coast, and as it past under The Pier we were told to "hold tight" because of the giant electric eel that lived below!

By Paul Wheatley (26/06/2007)

What is it about Brighton?  I grew up there, we lived there in the 1950s and 60s. It never leaves you - no matter where you go.  I too remember avoiding the gaps on the pier, and shutting my eyes on the helter skelter when I went over the sea!

By Trina Jaconelli (18/03/2008)

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