Claremont Pier

The Claremont Pier is a traditional seaside pier in Lowestoft in the English county of Suffolk.[1]

Claremont Pier
The Claremont Pier looking towards front.
Official nameClaremont Pier
TypePleasure Pier
DesignerD. Fox
OwnerDavid Scott and Family
Total length218 m
Opening date1903
Coordinates52.4657°N 1.7464°E / 52.4657; 1.7464

History
The Claremont Pier in 2016

The pier was constructed in 1902/03 and used originally as a mooring for Belle steamers.[2] It was designed by D. Fox and was originally 181.8 m in length and 10.9 m in width. In 1912, it was extended to a length of 230.3 m. Steamer services ended at the pier in 1939 and it was sectioned as a defence measure against the threat of invasion in 1940. When that threat had passed, the gap was closed with a Bailey bridge and the pier became an Army training centre during World War II until 1948.

By 1948 the pier was abandoned and derelict, and when Lowestoft Town Council refused an offer to purchase it for £4,000 the actor George Studd took it over for a year and began to repair the pier. After repair in the 1950s, a storm in 1962 washed a section of it away, reducing its length to 218 meters.[1]

In the 1990s the pier was taken over by the Scott family and, despite restoration work on the shoreward end, much of the pier remains in need of restoration. Facilities at the shoreward end include a nightclub, amusement arcade, children's rides and a restaurant and take-away. In 2005 the pier was put up for sale at £2.8 million but was unsold.[1][2]

PS Walton Belle sailed from Great Yarmouth via Lowestoft and intermediate piers to Clacton
gollark: So how *did* they build them if not huge amounts of slave labour?
gollark: I'm not sure how else they would have been built, with the technology of the time.
gollark: Well, yes, lots of slaves, sure.
gollark: A very quick internet search says there were indeed no bodies found there, but also that they could plausibly just have been stolen.
gollark: With some stuff inside of them where they buried people, I guess.

References
  1. The Heritage Trail
  2. History of Lowestoft Claremont Pier, National Piers Society. Retrieved 2016-08-05.
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