Grand Pier

The Grand Pier stands on the Bristol Channel at Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset. It is a pleasure pier 366 metres long that opened in 1904. The pavilion at its landward end once housed a 2,000-seat theatre used for music hall, opera, plays and ballet. A 500-yard extension was added in 1907 but later removed because of dangerous currents. The pier has been Grade II listed since 1983 and has survived two fires, in 1930 and 2008. The pier is worth the journey because it is one of only three piers in the town and the only one still operating. It won the National Piers Society Pier of the Year award in 2001 and again in 2011, becoming the first pier to win twice. The 2008 fire drew 13 fire engines and more than 85 firefighters, and an employee removed gas canisters to prevent a worse blaze. The rebuilt pavilion opened in 2010 at a cost of £39 million and was reopened the following year by Anne, Princess Royal. Visitors find a long deck lined with amusement arcades, shops and a fully licensed bar. Inside the pavilion there is a large undercover funfair, a go-kart track and a climbing wall. The pier has appeared in films and television series including The Remains of the Day, Bliss and Come Dine with Me. On the cover of Oasis’s 1995 single “Roll With It” the pier stands in the background of a seaside photograph.