Photographs of Southend Pier
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The Pier in Southend-on-Sea is the longest pleasure pier in the world.
It is about 2.16km long. The day that I went to see it was the coldest day of
the year and snow was iminent. The sky is very moody and it was VERY cold on
the pier.
The first pier was wooden and was built in 1830's and was 7000ft (2.13km) long.
The original wooden pier employed a horse tramway to convey goods and visitors
to the pier head. In 1890, with the construction of the iron pier, Cromptons
installed an electric tramway with a single toast rack carriage and 3/4 miles
of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge single track. By 1891 the line ran the full 1 1/4
miles and carriages were in use. The system expanded, until eventually, by 1930,
four trains, each made up of seven carriages, were running on a double track.
At the Pier Head there is a RNLI lifeboat station and sundeck. I didn't have
time to wait for the train to go to the end of the pier to see them and it was
far too cold to walk all the way.
