14 BUILDINGS AT RISK Heritage: We take a look at UK-wide pier restoration projects to see what lessons Queen’s Pier restorers can learn from them Pier pressure: breathing new life into a Victorian landmark Following on from last week’s Buildings at Risk article looking at the history of Ramsey’s Queen’s Pier, Simon Artymiuk looks at what the pier’s restorers can learn from efforts to maintain and restore some similar Victorian piers in Wales and England hen look- ing for inspiration for what a restored Ramsey Queen’s Pier could Wbecome, we need only look to the south across the Irish Sea, where a cluster of North Wales coastal resorts each have their own Victorian piers. The crowning glory of that area is Llandudno, which was developed as a resort by the Mostyn family in the 1840s and which has a long North Shore promenade in some ways reminiscent of Douglas seafront. What is more, its four-mile Marine Drive, completed in 1878 around the towering Great Orme headland (and which continues to operate as a one-way toll road for driv- ers to admire the coastal vis- tas) was the inspiration for the Isle of Man’s own Marine Drive between Douglas and Port So- derick. Clevedon Pier near Bristol, once described by John Betjeman as ‘the most beautiful pier in England’, has been painstakingly restored by a heritage trust Picture: Saffron Blaze Llandudno still has an operating 1902-built cable tramway to the top of the dudno’s surviving Victorian graded to make it suitable for cruise liners, pleasure steam- to Port St Mary were marred Nevertheless, Llandudno Great Orme, similar to the pier, which at 2,295ft is the the latest IOMSPCo vessels of ers heading to Liverpool and in June by stormy weather, Pier - a Grade II listed struc- one which ran until 1926 from longest in Wales and close in the time. Sadly those sailings around Anglesey - and sailings and in July by the Maritime ture under the UK heritage Victoria Street to Upper Doug- length to Ramsey’s Queen’s ended completely in the early by classic vessels like the Wa- and Coastguards Agency sud- buildings system - continues las via Prospect Hill, and from Pier. Llandudno Pier opened 2000s. verley and Balmoral to the Isle denly deciding that a trip to to be popular with the public the summit views of the Isle in 1878 and was extended in Recently the local author- of Man. the Isle of Man constituted an thanks to the views which can of Man and southern Lake 1886. ity, Conwy Council, developed Some £200,000 of the international sailing and was be enjoyed from it and the at- District Mountains can be Thanks to a landing stage a strategy to make Llandudno £330,000 cost of the landing therefore banned for a vessel tractions to be found along it. enjoyed on a clear day. Sadly, built at the pier head in 1891, more of a year-round resort stage’s refurbishment came like Balmoral! They include an amuse- though, a semi-rural electric it had a longstanding connec- – it continues to attract large out of funds given to Llan- It has to be wondered if ment arcade and fairground tramway along the lines of the tion with the Isle of Man as a numbers of coach tours and dudno by the builders of an the Isle of Man Government style attractions at the land- MER which used to link the destination for Steam Pack- many of the Victorian hotels offshore wind farm which is raised any objections – cer- ward end, attractive kiosks at town to Rhos-on-Sea and Col- et sailings - and in 1969, soon continue to operate as such. visible from the seafront. tainly Balmoral’s operator, points along the pier where wyn Bay closed in 1956. after Trust House Forte had Part of the strategy was re- Sadly attempts this sum- White Funnel, placed an in- small business owners and A prominent feature of the taken over ownership of the furbishment of the landing mer to run sailings by the Bal- dignant statement on their ice cream companies sell their North Shore seafront is Llan- pier, the landing stage was up- stage with a view to attracting moral from Llandudno Pier website. wares,and a larger pavilion at Lady of Mann on one of the last Isle of Man Steam Packet Co sailings from Llandudno Pier A hand-coloured c1900 view of Colwyn Bay’s Victoria Pier in North Wales, with its huge ‘Moorish Revival’ pavilion 15 BUILDINGS AT RISK Heritage: We take a look at UK-wide pier restoration projects to see what lessons Queen’s Pier restorers can learn from them An 1895 hand-coloured view of Somerset’s Birnbeck Pier at Weston-super-Mare, now sadly regarded as a UK ‘Building at Risk’ and the only British pier linking an island to the mainland the seaward end where take- to the west of Llandudno. molished by the local district vilion giving way to a non-de- point in the summer for clas- the buildings on the island to away and cafe style food and This 1,500ft pier projects council in 1974 - but then Ban- script, less fancy building by sic steamer trips. It is also a new uses have, so to speak, drink can be enjoyed. from the shore into the Menai gor City Council stepped in to the close of the 20th century. big draw for anglers - and for run aground and, despite Anglers are also allowed Straits separating mainland save it. The pier finally closed in film-makers, with band One the island housing a lifeboat access to the landing stage Wales from the Isle of Angle- With help from the Nation- 2008, after the owner went Direction recently having a station, the pier remains in a and groups of people can usu- sey. al Memorial Heritage Fund, bankrupt. promotional video shot on it sad state. This underlines the ally be seen fishing there at all At first sight it may seem the Welsh Office and the Man- Nevertheless, the pier and scenes from the 2010 Kei- message that pier restorations times of the day. a sheltered location for a pier power Services Commission, carried a grade II listing un- ra Knightley film Never Let Me need both a clear strategy and In 2015 the pier was sold but the straits, through hav- restoration began in 1982 and der the UK system, and once Go also featuring the pier. In funding in place to progress. by Crown Entertainments ing the waters of the Irish Sea the pier was reopened by the again various groups had 2012 it won £720,000 in Her- It is to be hoped that if Ltd to North Wales leisure at- rushing into their long and Marquess of Anglesey in 1988. plans to restore it, but these itage Lottery funding to im- the restoration of Ramsey’s traction operator Alan Wil- narrow channel from both Nevertheless, restoration became mired in controversy prove its visitor centre. Queen’s Pier is successful, the liams for £4.5m. Last year the ends at high tide, can be noto- of an iron pier is never the and bickering with the local While Clevedon Pier re- revival of its little railway may kiosks along the pier’s deck riously turbulent. end of the story and in 2011 it authority. tains its Victorian atmos- be part of that, as an attrac- were temporarily taken away This pier opened in 1896 was announced that £2m was Early this year some of the phere, not far to the south is tion for visitors, particularly and given a £100,000 revamp and also originally served as needed for essential mainte- seaward spans of the pier sud- Weston-super-Mare, where children. before being returned,and the a calling point for steamers to nance. There was much lo- denly collapsed into the sea the privately-owned Grand One pier that retains a result has left the pier looking Douglas, Liverpool and even cal squabbling about whose and the local council has now Pier, dating from 1904, has small operational railway very smart. Blackpool. Like Ramsey’s fault that was and the council embarked on a programme of emerged as a pier ‘reinvented along it is the 2,100ft long While Ramsey’s Pier lacked pier, it also originally had a 3ft revealed that though it had a demolition with a view to con- for the 21st century’ after its Hythe Pier in Hampshire, pavilions along its length in gauge luggage railway running pot of funds for the task, this structing a shortened version large pavilion caught fire soon which has a ferry across the past, perhaps the resto- along it, something which Lla- was short by £1m. of the pier, a policy agreed up- after mult-million-pound res- Southampton Water to the ration group should consider ndudno Pier never had. There was little progress on after talks with a local char- toration work had been car- city operating from its pier- providing some in the future However, the Bangor pier’s until 2014, when consultants itable trust. ried out by new owners in head. to increase the pier’s potential line was removed in 1914 by recommended a bid for Her- After that tale of woe, more 2008. The oldest continuously to attract visitors and to earn the Royal Engineers after a itage Lottery funding to help encouragement can be found The pier was rebuilt with a operating public pier railway revenue for the pier’s future cargo steamer collided with make the pier a major water- in Somerset, where another brand new modern pavilion at in the world, the little railway, maintenance? the pier, with the metal no front attraction.