More than 20 years after it was dismantled, plans to rebuild one of the West Pier’s original kiosks have finally been submitted.
The West Pier Trust has asked Brighton and Hove City Council for permission to site the kiosk, which it says it the world’s oldest surviving pleasure pier building, to the east of the i360 at beach level.
The trust will use original cast iron fixings from about one and a half kiosks which are in storage in Horsham after being dismantled in 1996.
They were originally intended to be put back onto a rebuilt pier, but those hopes were dashed in 2003 following two arson attacks on the derelict Grade I listed structure.
The application says: “Although the Kiosk is the single surviving building from the 1866 pier, originally it was one of six identical buildings – at the time called ‘ornamental houses’ – on the body of the pier above the sea.
“The surviving pier kiosk is of exceptional historical and architectural value.
“When originally erected in 1866 it and its now lost companions were the largest pier buildings to have been constructed.
“As such, the kiosks were the ‘essential precursor’ to the larger pier pavilions that became common later in the nineteenth century.
“The kiosks represent a key transitional stage from early open-decked promenade piers to later pleasure piers with large entertainment pavilions.
“Eugenius Birch’s kiosks were of breath-taking and revolutionary design. Nothing like them had been seen before.
“Indeed, contemporary commentators struggled to describe them and it was some time before they became known as kiosks (in the 1860s ‘kiosk’ was just emerging as a word to denote a light ornamental building).
“On its opening, the pier overall – of which the kiosks were such an important part – was likened to ‘a kind of butterfly upon the ocean to carry visitors upon its wings and waft them amongst the zephyrs and balmy breezes of Brighton’.”
The trust says it wants to restore and rebuild as much as possible of the existing structure.
Where it does not have the original materials, replicas will be made, including timber weatherboard pannelling and rolled lead roofing.
However, it hopes to use original cast iron columns and balustrades which is says is damaged but otherwise “in remarkably good condition”.
It says: “The cast iron was the critical material used in the design and making of the kiosk, providing both structural strength and the unique ornamental designs that make the kiosk decoratively so innovative and distinctive.
This is good news, but where will they locate this?
If to the east of the i360, does that mean on the new piazza which is to the east of the existing West Pier posts sculpture (which some people call ‘Ironhenge’ )?
Yes, thats correct Billy, in front of West Pier Centre Arches.