hackbash

Anyone who’s walked along Brighton seafront this week will know that, after decades in which the West Pier was neither fixed, sold or – ultimately – restored, the sorry remains of the concert hall are now being recovered from the sea.

I’m not clear on the point. The West Pier Trust says that it’s a requirement of the planning permission granted for the huge, elongated sex toy that will be the i360. Given that they’re not building this in the sea and that the wreckage has been quietly minding its own business for the last few years, I’m not sure why the mangled, barnacled beams can’t just be left there – surely after 144 years they’ve earned the right to rust away quietly?

I got some unremarkable photos of the work on Tuesday, when I felt fairly ambivalent about the recovery, but last night in the dark, without the familiar semi-submerged skeleton guarding its patch of the beach, the seascape looked miserably sanitised.

From Hove Lawns I found myself looking back along the front, imagining how it will look when a 150-metre dildo marks the spot. I’m actually reasonably in favour of the i360, but for the first time I found myself resenting it, and wondering why we needed a second tourist attraction at all.

I believe the plan is still that it will help fund the restoration and recovery of the pavilion island, which remains standing in the sea.

Let’s hope that, for the first time since 1975, they don’t fuck it up.

Tags: Brighton, clearance, concert hall, demolition, pavilion, West Pier