EPW036622 ENGLAND (1931). Southend Pier, Southend-on-Sea, 1931

Southend Pier The second pier which replaced an earlier wooden pier, completed in 1889, with an extension in 1897. Further extended in 1927. Reputed to be the longest pleasure pier in the world at 1.34 miles. The single track electric railway was made double track in 1931. During WW2 the pier was "HMS Leigh" The shore-end pavilion was destroyed by fire in 1959 trapping several hundred on the pier who were rescued by lifeboat. The pier head suffered much fire damage in 1976, with firemen working from the pier, boats and an aircraft. By 1977 the shore end pavilion had been replaced by a bowling alley which was damaged by fire that year. It was proposed to close the pier in 1980 but a grant was forthcoming by 1983. The structure is Grade 2 listed. The electric railway was closed in 1978 and reopened as a diesel-operated railway in 1986. Between 1986-1989 the pier head was severed from the rest of the pier by a boat collision which destroyed the lifeboat house. In 1995 the reinstated landward bowling alley was destroyed by yet another fire. By 2005 it was again the turn of the pier head to suffer destruction by fire- destroying the Old Pier Head including the railway station, pub, shell shop, snack bar and ice cream shop. The final 15 metres of the railway track was lost. The pier reopened again in 2007. In 2012 a new pier head pavilion to a contemporary design (eg odd) was built to hold 185 people and serve as a theatre / exhibition space.

One of the 2 speedboats is the 40knot "Silver Bullet" which was owned, I believe, by well-known racing driver Kaye Don. It could seat 8 passengers and the Pilot. For anyone not old enough to remember, such speedboats traveled so fast at a time when the fastest RN Destroyers could only reach 35 knots, - that people likened them to "flying" and so the helmsmen were spoken of as "Pilots" by everyone.

The big open motorboat is the Southend Motor Navigation Co.'s "San Toy 1", which was commandeered for the evacuation from the Dunkirk beaches, and never returned to her owners, Albert Brand, and W.H. (Bill) Wilson my father.