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A view from the West Pier

I took this photograph in the early 1960’s on the West Pier. The Deco building between the fishing rods was featured on the TV programme Location, Location, Location, after years of decline. Subsequent to renovation it is now on the up again thank goodness.

I recall that my father fancied testing his punching power on one of the machines that year on the pier. He put his coppers in the slot, and took a swing at the punchball. The noise echoed round the pier, and the next we knew the spring had broken, and the leather ball was punctured and hanging pathetically from its moorings. We moved away swiftly, leaving him desperately trying to reassemble the machine before some attendent materialised! I was sad to see the state of the pier some 30 years later on a day trip, and wondered if it would ever rise again?

Time for a bite?
Photo by Stefan Bremner-Morris

Comments about this page

  • Remember it well – happy times though my mother had just died just after we moved there from Mile Oak. I lived off Waterloo Street which is just to the left of Embassy Court flats there. And used to ride my bike around all the time age 14 and often went on the West Pier.

    By Paul Edwards (03/04/2015)
  • I remember well the West Pier, very good for flatfish fishing.
    I and two friends used to work in the candy floss and toffee apple shops on the seafront by the foot of West street during our summer holidays ( early sixties ).
    The shop I worked in was owned by a Mr Butcher, does anyone remember him?
    After work, we would go on the West Pier rifle range and spend half of what we had earned that day. So sad what has happened to the old girl, to my mind it ought to have been rebuilt, and looking at the amount of waste that has gone on in Brighton the last 20 years it is a crime.
    Just saying.
    Do you agree ?
    Still think Brighton is terrific.

    By Peter Miller (26/02/2019)
  • Does anyone remember the west pier angling club? Many happy times fishing at weekends there, the man who had the bait shop on there bought in our orders Sat and Sunday. I was lucky to catch many flounders, I remember Daphne who served us cups of tea when we nipped into cafe to warm up, I did all my courting here then married and moved away – we had 52 years together. We watched from afar the first breakdown of the pier and the fires: we were so sad and upset.

    By Christine Constable (17/11/2019)
  • Used to always be going fishing on the West Pier as a kid in the very early 1960s with my mate Dave Saunders.We loved to float fish for mackerel at the very south end by a ship’s bell that was there
    The name of the fishing club was I think Everyman Angling club There was a guy call Al Pollack who was a retired ex American policeman who was always fishing there. The man who ran the tackle and bait shop was Mr Cooper.

    By Richard Pearce (04/07/2023)

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