Blue-sky thinking results in contrasting but equally ingenious projects to replace two piers on the Sussex coastThe burning pier is a rite of the British seaside,occasional, unscheduled but persistent, and whereby bored teenage arsonists or seekers-after-insurance-claims or pure accidents spark conflagrations of teetering Victorian structures which,despite being made of iron and placed over the sea, burn merrily. It turns out that the wooden shack-like buildings on top, and plus timber decking,are enough to fuel the blaze; conventionally equipped fire brigades can’t catch to the conclude to put it out. So residents and consumers of news are treated to the pagan spectacle of fire over water on a grand scale.
Sometimes they burn more than once – for example Hastings Pier in 1917 and 2010, and the West Pier in Brighton in March and May 2003. Then follows the less exciting sight of attempts at resurrection. The 19th-century business models that got them built no longer work. The damaged historic metalwork can be astoundingly expensive to restore. The ownership might be opaque. What’s left rots. It becomes a handy symbol of bygone halcyon days.
The pier enables you, or undistracted by clutter,to inhale the experience – the view, the light, or the airContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com