Brighton West Pier: A History Through the Lens

A Victorian Icon

Opened in 1866 and designed by Eugenius Birch, the West Pier attracted four million visitors a year at its peak. It was one of the finest examples of Victorian pier architecture in Britain.

Decline and Destruction

The pier closed in 1975. A series of fires, including a devastating blaze in 2003, reduced the ornate structure to the skeletal silhouette standing offshore today.

Why Photographers Are Drawn to It

The ruin offers the interplay of light on water, drama of iron against a sunset sky, and the melancholy beauty of something grand reduced to something elemental. Long-exposure photography transforms the sea into silk and clouds into brushstrokes.

Shop our West Pier photography prints, from A4 to A1 on archival Hahnemühle paper.