Fire destroys Grand Pier at Weston-super-Mare
Monday, 28th July 2008 by Alex Turnbull
At 6:45am this morning local time, fire fighters were called to a massive blaze taking place at the Weston-super-Mare Grand Pier.
Ironically, the fire service were having difficulty getting enough water to put out the blaze. As you can see in the above image, the pavilion is 800 metres out to sea, and to make matters worse, the tide was out when the fire began.
The pier was first opened in 1904, and was reopened in April this year after a massive revamp. As we’ve seen before it seems to be a tragically frequent occurrence that one of these historic structures burns down, and in fact the Grand Pier previously burnt down in 1930.
Now that the fire has been brought under control, it looks like the pavilion has been completely destroyed, but that the iron foundations of the structure are still standing. Hopefully for Weston-super-Mare someone will undertake the task of restoring the pier to its former glory.
Read more and watch a video at the BBC, see this gallery of pictures or read the pier's Wikipedia page.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
One should really have a look at the south end pier as well.Because the pictures are updated now.
This is very sad and i hope the insurance company stump up the money and it gets rebuilt. Anyway – i dont know Weston Super Mare so can anyone give a brief story about the small island to the north which has some derelict buildings, a life boat station and an abandoned jetty. Its too hot here today to Google 8) https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=51.358202,-2.999429&z=17
@Cookie – that’s the derelict Birnbeck Pier. The only pier in the country which links the mainland to an island just off shore!
@Alex: Surely this means it is not a pier, but the little known ‘bridge’? 😉
Here’s the Bird’s eye for Birnbeck
PierBridge, and the Grand Pier.Thanks for letting us know the Southend Pier images are updated, Michael. The thumbnails on this site serve as useful historical records. I often think it’s a pity older images are inaccessible once Google updates them. Why can’t they make the historical ones available? It would add a new dimension (literally!) to Google Maps, which would help them rival Live Maps (particularly as Google are lacking the Bird’s Eye view…)
i love that BBC have finally stopped using realplayer!
Check out Eagle Point Dr & Butterfly Dr, Sherwood, AR on Google Map Street View and look around. Talk about good timing! Or bad timing if it is your house.