Eastbourne Pier

The proposal for a pier was first mooted at the end of 1863, and highly favoured by the town's major landowner, William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire. It was to have been 1000 feet in length and, at a cost of £12,000, would have been situated at the end of the town's grandest avenue, Devonshire Place. However, the project was delayed and finally abandoned in favour of the present site at the junction of Grand and Marine Parades, thus creating the easterly end of what amounts to a shingle bay. The pier interrupts what would otherwise have been a ribbon development of buildings – to the west, high-class hotels, with modest family hotels and boarding houses to the east. The Eastbourne Pier…

The pier appears in the Agatha Christie's Poirot episodes "Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan" (although the story is set in Brighton) and "Curtain: Poirot's Last Case". It was also featured in the 2001 film Last Orders and the 2008 film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Eastbourne Town FC supporters club "Pier Pressure" are named in homage to the pier.