We were very proud to be appointed to act on behalf of the owners of Eastbourne Pier following the major fire that sadly took hold of the main arcade building.

The roof of the pier in Eastbourne, built in the East Sussex seaside town in the 1870s, was completely destroyed, leaving only a metal skeleton.

Having acted for the owners of the Pier for many years, Nick Balcombe headed up the team that also included Stewart Dymant and Adrian Gilluly. This follows our previous work on piers at Weston-super-Mare, Southend, Hunstanton, Blackpool and Rhyl.

This fire occurred in the domed listed amusement arcade covering approx a quarter of the pier length but as it was situated towards the land side, the rest of the pier could not be accessed. Specialist contractors worked with us and the management to make sure that there was some form of facility before the end of the season. Cantilevered walkways were constructed to allow the public to bypass the burned out shell whilst still allowing continual removal of the affected area and new construction to take place.

Our client commented “We would like to express our thanks to all parties that helped Eastbourne Pier open its doors to the public so quickly after the tragic fire that occurred on the 30th July 2014. It is testimony to the team assembled to reconstruct the pier that it was able to open 58 days after the fire.”

The impressive result was achieved through a collaborative effort from Harris Balcombe, the local authority, and health and safety officials, as well as the Six Pier Company and their contractors, RSA and Crawfords.