![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/19\/2022\/06\/GettyImages1126266512preview-c809712.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C929"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Extending for almost 200 elegant metres into the English Channel, this Dorset promenade was the work of prolific pier designer Eugenius Birch. Opened in 1897, to serve passenger steamers running along England\u2019s south coast, it fell into disrepair in the late 1960s.<\/p>\n
Now Grade II-listed and run by a charitable trust, it was restored in the late 1990s and continues to draw visitors with its ornamental ironwork, dapper wooden shelter and Jurassic Coast views. Like several other piers, it\u2019s visited by the historic Waverley paddle steamer, but it\u2019s also home to a popular diving centre and hosts outdoor yoga in summer.<\/p>\n
Visit Swanage Pier<\/a><\/p>\n You might also like<\/strong> our Isle of Purbeck travel guide<\/a><\/p>\n One of three piers built in what was once the UK\u2019s prime seaside resort, this Lancashire icon is, arguably, the most famous example of its kind. Like so many others, it was built (in 1868) to tap into the growth of visitors that came with the rise of railways and workers\u2019 holidays.<\/p>\n Dubbed the \u2018People\u2019s Pier\u2019, unlike the town\u2019s North Pier \u2013 older, longer and altogether more refined \u2013 it was designed (by Lieutenant-Colonel John Isaac Mawson) as a kind of overwater fun fair; entertainment for the working classes was the objective. Later additions included a theatre, dodgems, waltzers and a ferris wheel.<\/p>\n Visit Blackpool Central Pier<\/a><\/p>\n This truncated Lincolnshire projection (the seaward section was breached for defence in 1940, then later demolished) still has echoes of the end-of-the-pier show about it. Like so many of its peers, the 1873 structure has been through its share of turbulence, from storm damage and fire to bungled development plans.<\/p>\n What\u2019s left is a treasure, however. An Edwardian pavilion on stilts, built in 1905 when its pier-head predecessor was burnt down, it was restored \u2013 along with the pier\u2019s wooden walkways \u2013 by a local consortium in 2015 and now operates as a glitzy fish and chip restaurant.<\/p>\n Visit Cleethorpes Pier<\/a><\/p>\n You might also like<\/strong> the UK\u2019s best coastal walks<\/a><\/p>\n Crowned Pier of the Year for 2022, this feat of Victorian engineering stretches 460m into the Menai Strait, reaching out from the coastline of Bangor, in North Wales, almost to Anglesey. Reopened last year following a major restoration, the Grade II*-listed pier first opened in 1896.<\/p>\n Primarily it served the Liverpool and North Wales Steamship Company, which shuttled passengers on pleasure steamers between Blackpool, Liverpool and the Isle of Man, but it also played host to brass bands, variety performances and swimming contests. Its long wooden deck is laced with octagonal kiosks.<\/p>\n Visit Bangor Garth Pier<\/a><\/p>\n Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, is home to the world\u2019s oldest seaside pleasure pier. Opened in 1814, it offered a great improvement on coming ashore \u2013 before then, it involved an ungainly combination of being carried on a porter\u2019s back and, if the tide was out, squelching half a mile across wet sand.<\/p>\n Later extended and strengthened, in 1864 a parallel second pier was constructed to carry horse-drawn trams. This was joined by a third pier, for rail carriages, in 1880. Currently two piers are in operation \u2013 the original promenade pier and one to shuttle passengers onwards from docking Portsmouth catamarans.<\/p>\n Visit Ryde Pier<\/a><\/p>\nBlackpool Central Pier<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Cleethorpes Pier<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Bangor Garth Pier<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Ryde Pier<\/h2>\n
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