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On this day in 1896:Brighton’s first pier is destroyed in a storm. Many artists and photographers documented the event. Here is an etching by Robert Charles Goff, who must have rushed to the scene almost immediately.

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The Chain Pier could not resist the elements forever. On the night of  4 December 1896 Brighton was hit by a ferocious storm with high winds. At about 10.30pm the Chain Pier suddenly collapsed. This grand piece of nineteenth century engineering, which had stood for over seventy years, vanished within just a few seconds.

Local photographers were fascinated by the pier’s dramatic disappearance, and before and after souvenirs were common.

Catch our Pierdom exhibition at Brighton Museum to see Simon Roberts’ poignant photographs of Britain’s last remaining piers.

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The Chain Pier endured many storms, such as this storm in November 1824. 

Print by H Waters, dated 23 November 1824. See full catalogue record.

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Here is another proposed marina for Brighton. Designed by William Henry Smith, this proposed harbour extended west from the head of the Chain Pier before looping back to the pier’s toll booth.

Proposed in 1842, this scheme was another development that failed to be constructed. 

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This engraving shows another scheme for the Chain Pier which failed to come to pass. It shows a giant marina surrounding the pier. Had this been constructed, it would have sheltered the Chain Pier and much of Brighton seafront.

The proposal was developed by George Adolphus Wigney in 1842. It was one of several ideas which aimed to revive the pier’s use as a marine landing stage.

Although it was never built, Wigney’s marina bears some similarities to today’s Brighton Marina. Indeed, the image shown here was scanned from a photographic copy of the original engraving. The copy was made by the local council’s Borough Surveyor’s department in the early 1960s, when ideas first developed for the modern marina.

See the original catalogue record.

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As the Chain Pier declined in use as a landing stage, attempts were made to improve its facilities as a tourist attraction. The need became more pressing after the West Pier opened in 1866.

This print dates from about 1883 and shows an ambitious scheme to build a new pier head at the end of the Chain Pier. The pier head was intended to houses restaurants, bathing facilities and assembly rooms. The word ‘kursaal’ is adopted from the German term of a place of entertainment at a spa.

The plans do not seem to have progressed very far, and there is no evidence that any of this structure was ever built. 

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A close view of one of the Chain Pier’s toll booth gates.This is a section of a c1831 print by John Bruce.

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The Chain Pier transformed the eastern section of Brighton beach. People visiting the pier had to purchase a ticket from a toll booth that was erected to the side of Marine Parade.

Although this secured a revenue stream for the pier’s operators, it also closed off a large part of the beach to the non-paying public.

This print was produced by J Smith in about 1850. It clearly shows the gates and tollbooth in the centre foreground.

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Early print showing the Chain Pier by Edmund Burn. The print was probably produced in late 1823, shortly after the pier was completed.

The water wheel on the left, which stood at the end of the Old Steine, was destroyed in a storm on 23 November 1824.

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If you come to Brighton Museum to see our Pierdom exhibition, make sure you pop over to the South Balcony on the first floor. Yo can now find several prints of the Chain Pier as part of our Views of 19th Century Brighton display.

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The Chain Pier declined in use as a landing stage from the 1840s onwards. This was largely due to the influence of the railway.

In 1847, Brighton was connected by rail to the nearby port of Newhaven. Newhaven’s more sheltered position made it a much more attractive point of disembarkation for passenger ships than the exposed Chain Pier.

The arrival of the railway link with London in 1841 also brought thousands more tourists to Brighton every year. Already popular with sightseers, the Chain Pier soon became an essential destination for all visitors to Brighton. The Chain Pier had now transformed from marine infrastructure to a tourist attraction.

This coloured lithograph from 1846 was produced during the last few months of its regular use as a landing stage.

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The Chain Pier was over 350 metres long. This photograph shot from an elevated perspective provides a good sense of its length. The small group of figures on the structure also help to give a sense of its scale.

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Brighton beach scene, c1890 by Thomas Donovan. The Chain Pier looms over the crowds enjoying the beach.

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West Pier, Brighton, before 1900, etching by Robert Charles Goff (1837-1922)

The etcher enhances the romantic atmosphere of this evening view of the West Pier at low tide by adding smoke from a small steamboat moored at the pier. He emphasises depth by placing small figures on the beach in the foreground and a couple of sailing boats in the distance. The intricate structure of the pier, throwing shadows onto the shallow water, is rendered with great tonal subtlety.

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The Chain Pier’s popularity with tourists led to a number of traders setting up on the pier. One was John Gapp, a silhouette artist who traded from a small studio on the third tower of the pier.

At a time when painted portraits were too expensive for most people, silhouette artists like Gapp provided cheap and quick likenesses using no more than paper and scissors. In many ways they anticipated the boom in studio portraiture that followed the invention of photography in 1839.

This silhouette of an unknown gentlemen was produced by John Gapp in the 1830s on the Chain Pier.

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Turner’s Brighthelmston was copied by other artists, such as this engraving by George Cooke. In part this reflects Turner’s reputation and fame, but it was also motivated by how much of Brighton Turner was able to capture in his painting.

By depicting the Chain Pier, the Royal Pavilion, and the seafront, Turner had managed to bring together Brighton’s three most recognisable features in a single image.

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The Chain Pier attracted the attention of artist JMW Turner. His Brighthelmston, painted in about 1824, shows the pier standing resolute against the waves, while two small fishing vessels are rocked by the sea.

Although it would never have been visible from this position, Turner’s painting also shows the Royal Pavilion in the centre background.

This painting was acquired by the Royal Pavilion & Museums in 2012. You can read more about how we were able to purchase it on the Brighton Museums blog.