Images Brighton pictures of the week 24-02-2003

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The Palace Pier at Brighton, 1983-2003

To borrow from Oscar Wilde's Lady Bracknell, "to lose one pier may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness". The fire at the end of Brighton's Palace Pier on February 3rd could have been much worse, but it is still extraordinary that it came so soon after the West Pier's collapse just a few weeks before. It has been reported that the Palace Pier's helter skelter - one of its principal visual delights - may have to be demolished because it was "badly scorched" in the fire. Surely it would not be too difficult to repair it and there must remain a suspicion that the pier's owners would prefer to have a more modern (and greater revenue producing) attraction on the site of the helter skelter. Today's pictures of the week show the Palace Pier between 1983 and now.

The helter skelter and the old theatre at the end of the pier in May 1983 (image a135-2)

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