Victoria Pier

Cadw's description

Location

Prominently sited at about the mid-point of the bay.

History

The pier was developed by a private company, and was designed by Messrs. Mangnalls and Littlewood of Manchester, architects and engineers. The contractors were the Widnes Foundry Company. The original pavilion was destroyed by fire in 1923. There were further fires in the pavilion and the theatre at the end of the pier in 1933, and the pavilion that replaced these was a smaller structure.

Exterior

The pier is linked to the promenade by a massive stone retaining wall which curves upwards from the low level walkway of the promenade to the higher level of the roadway. The pier itself has a substructure of cast iron columns with composite capitals and wrought iron lattice work. Wooden deck with cast iron balustrading, formed of panels of interlaced foliated incorporating a monogram. The pier extends from the land in 4 sections. The first has small pavilion entrance booths and an amusement hall which replace earlier structures. The hall extends out to the westernmost edge, but an open gangway remains to the east. The second section extends out to the east, and it carried the pavilion, the present structure again a modern replacement of earlier buildings lost in successive fires. The main superstructure incorporates circular projections at its 2 eastern corners, but the original balustrading is lost where the pavilion extends to the E boundary of the pier. Linking the main pavilion with the landward hall is the remains of a length of arcade which one formed a covered way. Cast iron columns with fan-decoration in the spandrels. Beyond the pavilion, the third section forms the main length of the pier, of about the same length as the first section, with 4 pairs of rectangular projections.