Work is under way to restore the old Brighton rock shop which once stood as a toll booth at the entrance to the West Pier.
And a replica is being made so that the entrance to the i360 will reflect the original 1866 entrance to the pier.
The work is being undertaken at the Swan Foundry, a specialist forge and metalworker in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
The West Pier Trust said in its latest newsletter that the rock shop stood at the eastern corner of the shore end of the pier.
The trust said: “Sadly it had to be closed and dismantled in 2010 because it had become structurally unsafe.
“Its original use was as a toll booth and another identical building stood at the western corner of the root end. They opened, with the pier, in October 1866.
“As part of the i360 scheme the eastern building will be restored and reinstated and its sister toll booth replicated.
“Work has already begun on the restoration and the dismantled toll booth is currently at Swan Foundry in Banbury where the sections of the building are already looking transformed.
“It’s an exciting prospect that the entrance to the i360 will strongly reflect the original entrance of the pier and the two principle structures will be back in place for the first time since the early 1980s.”
What is wrong with this Green council? Why can’t they just let the sea front rot like all the previous administrations. Renovating arches and the i360 is crazy when this money could have been spent widening roads. Who actually wants to get out of their car and step on a beach! There is no doubt in my mind that had we had a Green administration at the time of the closure of the West Pier the ideological Greens would only gone and saved it.
Roll on May and vote LibLabConKip, let’s end the madness of improving over city!
I always thought that the West Pier Trust dismantled the sister building which was on the west side of the entrance to the pier and put it into storage for renovation at a later date? Smacks of the Noble Company dismantling the Palace Pier theatre and putting it into storage?
Yeah, I thought they “rescued” the phantom toll booth. Where did it go?
I worked in the rock shop, Lewington’s Rock Shoppe, back in the summer of 1975. Remeber the amazing fudge they sold there?