Bognor Pier
King George V famously didn’t like Bognor, where he was sent to recuperate after surgery in 1929. After his stay at Craigwell House in nearby Aldwick, he received a petition to grant the town the suffix “Regis” – literally, “of the King”. I can’t possibly tell the story better than Wikipedia, citing Antonia Fraser’s The house of Windsor (2000):
The petition was presented to Lord Stamfordham, the King’s Private Secretary, who in turn delivered it to the King. King George supposedly replied, “Oh, bugger Bognor.” Lord Stamfordham then went back to the petitioners and told them, “the King has been graciously pleased to grant your request.”
Like many small seaside resorts at the ends of branch lines, Bognor is a rather sad place today, but it has a proud history as a genteel place to relax, founded in the late eighteenth century by the local landowner Sir Richard Hotham, and more energetically developed after the arrival of the branch railway in 1864.
It’s hardly an accident that Bognor Pier was begun in the same year, designed by Sir Charles Fox and his cousin J W Wilson and opened in 1865. Originally a thousand feet long, it cost £5,000, but was subsequently bought for £1,200 by the Local Board in 1876.
The Board’s successor, Bognor Urban District Council, were glad to offload it to a private operator, who spent £30,000 dealing with dilapidations and constructing an entertainment complex at the shore end, comprising a theatre with a fly-tower, a picture theatre, an amusement arcade and a roof-garden restaurant, all of which opened in 1912.
During the Second World War, from 1943-45, the pier was HMS St Barbara, a naval observation station armed with anti-aircraft guns.
Its history became vexed from the 1960s onwards: repeated changes of ownership meant that maintenance failed to keep up with onslaughts of storm damage.
Though it’s listed Grade II and the pier head building remains in part, only 350 feet of the pier itself survives, and repeated attempts to attract lottery funding for a major restoration have fallen apart.
Most recently, the energetic friends’ group, Bognor Pier Trust, learned that the current owners, Bognor Pier Leisure Ltd (BPLL), would not support a £5,000,000 lottery bid but were committed to maintaining the structure: https://www.bognor.co.uk/news/future-of-bognor-pier-plunged-into-uncertainty-after-owners-withdraw-support-for-5m-funding-bid-1-7653934 and http://www.bognorpiertrust.co.uk/news-articles/no-lottery-bid-bognor-regis-pier.
The Trust has made a dignified decision to concentrate on other conservation projects in the town, and to remain ready to purchase the Pier if the current owners decide to sell.
Where that leaves the long-term future of the Pier itself remains to be seen.