Description

SI 9398 BOGNOR REGIS THE ESPLANADE

7/131 Bognor Regis Pier

27.4.89 II

Pleasure pier. 1865 for the Bognor Promenade Company Ltd; shore end enlarged and large pavilion housing theatre, arcade with shops, theatre and picture-house added 1912 for Bognor Pier Compan architect G C Smith; alterations mid- and late-C20. A former small pavilion at the sea-ward end collapsed into the sea 1965; former wooden stage tower dismantled 1972; foreshortened by storm damage 1999. Pier built of iron posts with wooden decking and cast-iron railings. Roughcast pavilions at shore end with roofs of slate, roofing felt, and felt tiles. Arcade facing promenade is of 2 storeys with hipped roof. Central round-headed pediment with round-headed window flanked by ornate pilasters with swags. On either side, two further 3-light mullioned and transomed casements and central on light windows with good Art Nouveau-style stained glass. Ground floor is supported on 5 piers with triglyph frieze above and modern shop fronts and doors below. Side elevations have blank round-headed pediments, pilasters, friezes and cornices. To the rear is the former theatre. This has 2 square towers on the landward side with flagpoles; keyed round-headed arches with bracketed hood moulds and former oculi replaced by door (left tower) and window (right tower); modillioned cornices. At centre, betwel towers, former entrance is masked by flat-roofed addition, and has keyed oculus in open segmen1 pediment on brackets. Side elevations have pedimented gables with oculi in bracketed architraves above mullioned and transomed windows. Former open-fronted arcade below 1st-floor balcony now walled but with original columns. Interior: theatre: two stairs, one with original handrail, the other with wall-panelling and ceiling cornice; late-C20 suspended floor inserted in former auditorium at circle balcony height, but decorative balcony front survives, with plaster cherubs, swags and cartouches. Decorative plaster work to auditorium walls, vaulted ceiling, dome and proscenium arch. Original1st-floor pa glazed double-doors in architraves. Projection box. Former picture-house/concert hall retains vault ceiling with some star-shaped light fittings, disc decoration to supporting column, curtain pelmet, a projection box.

Source: Eds I Mackintoch & M Sell, Curtains!!! or a new life for Old Theatres, 1982, p94. P Wells & S Endacott, Glimpses of Bognor Regis Pier, 1982 (Pier Heritage). P Wells and S Endacott, Bognor Regis Pier, 1997 (Heritage Open Day). G Young, History of Bognor Regis, 1983, p187.

Listing NGR: SZ9343898792

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Bognor Regis Pier at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26636705

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings