Does Torquay have a Pier?
Princess Pier circa 1907
Paignton has a pier; Teignmouth has a pier. But does Torquay? Kevin Dixon mulls over the evidence.
F
irst, we need to define what a pier is. The architectural definition of a ‘pier’ is a strong pillar used to support a structure. It’s from the late Old English, ‘pere’, ‘support of a span of a bridge’. The word then came to mean a structure built on posts extending from land out over water. Importantly, a pier is a structure that water passes beneath. What Torquay then has is a breakwater, a solid structure down to the seabed. It could have been so different. Very late in the game in 1878, speculators hoped to construct piers at Torquay, Falmouth and Plymouth for the use of pleasure steamers
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and promenaders. And in 1881 and 1883 local groups planned a true pier reaching out from the Palm Court Hotel - now Abbey Crescent- along the lines of those piers that could be seen in Brighton or Blackpool. These grand plans were all rejected. To consider why Torquay is unusual for a tourist resort in not having such a pier, we have to go back to the origins and story of that British icon. Originally piers were just landing docks. The first pleasure pier, at Ryde on the Isle of Wight, was built in 1814, and by 1850 there were a dozen piers at British seaside resorts. These were fashionable and
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