Southend Pier - Fire Damage

26th March 2009

Something that caught my eye on a beautiful sunny autumn Saturday, these photos were taken on Southend Pier in October 2008 and show some of the remaining fire damage from the 2005 fire.

Southend Pier was originally completed in 1848 as a wooden structure however the current iron pier dates back to 1889 with various additions in later years. The original purpose of the pier was to allow pleasure steamers to visit Southend, the Thames Estuary waters here are very shallow so Southend was losing much trade to Kentish resorts such as Margate which were more accessible to maritime traffic. The pier's history has been eventful - it served as HMS Leigh in WW2, suffered numerous fires in 1959, 1976, 1995 and 2005, and also was severed by the MV Kingsabbey which crashed into the pier in 1984.

The October 2005 fire severely damaged much of the Old Pier Head including the railway station, pub, shell shop, snack bar and ice-cream shop. Many of these buildings tumbled into the sea and since then the remaining debris has been cleared however there are still some remains which these photos hopefully capture.

Looking north to Southend from the pier head. The fire damaged are is just to the left of centre of the photo. 1024x702	Telephoto shot towards Southend sea front. 1024x701	These fire damaged supports were on the west side of the pier. 1024x705	Charred timbers. 1024x683
The fire was very intense here, this is the east side of the pier. 1024x702	Fire damaged ironwork. 767x1024	Ironwork. 1024x683	Ironwork. 745x1024
Another view of the east side of the pier. 1025x683	I love this one, a fire rusted Royal Mail post box still attached to a lamp standard. Any letters inside would have ended up as charcoal! 1024x702	Our transport to the pier, the paddlesteamer Waverly. 1024x697