Saving Birnbeck Pier

Opened on 5 June 1867, Birnbeck Pier originally ‘Bearn Back' was designed by Eugenius Birch, the buildings designed by architect Hans Price. The pier was commissioned by the Admiralty in 1949, renamed HMS Birnbeck, and used a weapons research centre. The pier links the mainland of Weston-super-Mare with Birnbeck Island. The National Piers Society states that the seaside piers around the UK stand as powerful reminders of Victorian engineering and entrepreneurialism.

In 1872 improvements included a 250-foot wooden jetty and in 1881 the addition of a lifeboat station and in 1889 the building of a boathouse with the construction of a pavilion added in 1884. The buildings were damaged by fire in 1902. P&A Campbell ran the pier from 1962 to 1972 selling it to John Critchley in 1989, ownership then passed to Phil Stubbs, who wanted to restore the pier. 1992 saw the work cease due to lack of funding and it closed to the public in 1994.