Royal Suspension Chain Pier

The Royal Suspension Chain Pier was the first major pier built in Brighton, England. Opened on 25 November 1823, it was destroyed during a storm on 4 December 1896.^[1]

Royal Suspension Chain Pier

A postcard of the pier
Spans	English Channel
Locale	Brighton, England
Owner	Brightelmston Suspension Pier Company (before 1889) Brighton Marine Palace and Pier Company (from 1889)
Operator	Brightelmston Suspension Pier Company
Characteristics
Total length	1,134 feet (346 m)
Width	13 feet (4.0 m)
History
Designer	Samuel Brown
Construction start	18 September 1822
Completion date	September 1823
Opening date	25 November 1823
Closure date	October 1896
Destruction date	4 December 1896
Coordinates	50°49′06″N 0°07′51″W

Oak foundation piles of the Royal Suspension Chain Pier Brighton and Brighton Pier in the background in 2010.

History

Brighthemstone Suspension Pier Act 1822
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act for erecting and maintaining a Chain Pier and other Works connected therewith, at the Town of Brighthelmston, in the County of Sussex.
Citation	3 Geo. 4. c. cii
Dates
Royal assent	5 July 1822
Text of statute as originally enacted

The pier was authorised by the Brighthemstone Suspension Pier Act 1822 (3 Geo. 4. c. cii).

Generally known as the Chain Pier, it was designed by Captain Samuel Brown RN,^[2] with construction starting on 18 September 1822 and completing in September 1823,^[3] opening on 25 November 1823.^[4] Brown had completed the Trinity Chain Pier in Edinburgh in 1821.^[5] The pier was owned and operated by the Brighthelmston Suspension Pier Company, and was primarily intended as a landing stage for packet boats to Dieppe, France, but it also featured a small number of attractions including a camera obscura. An esplanade with an entrance toll-booth controlled access to the pier which was roughly in line with the New Steine. Turner and Constable both made paintings of the pier, King William IV landed on it, and it was even the subject of a song.

The Chain Pier co-existed with the later West Pier, but a condition to build the Palace Pier was that the builders would dismantle the Chain Pier. They were saved this task by a storm that destroyed the already-closed and decrepit pier on 4 December 1896. Some of the debris from the pier damaged the then under-construction Palace Pier and the Daddy Longlegs railway.^[6]

The remains of some of the pier's oak piles could be seen at low tides around 2010, however, as of 2021, they are no longer visible. Masonry blocks can still be seen. The signal cannon of the pier is still intact, as are the entrance kiosks which are now used as small shops on the Palace Pier.

Gallery

• 
  A photochrom of Brighton Aquarium with the pier in the background, originally photographed around 1890
• 
  [[Chain Pier, Brighton (painting)|]] by John Constable c.1827. Brighton beach with the Chain Pier in the background.
• 
  The Chain Pier, Brighton by J. M. W. Turner, 1828
• 
  The Chain Pier at Brighton, by J. M. W. Turner
• 
  Signal cannon from the Chain Pier, on Palace Pier
• 
  Model of the Royal Suspension Chain Pier on display at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery

See also

• National Piers Society
• List of piers in the United Kingdom