Location

The pier is central in the sense that it is located between the other two, but it is also close to the site of the now-defunct Blackpool Central railway station

Blackpool Central railway station

Blackpool Central was the largest railway station in the town of Blackpool in the county of Lancashire, England. When it closed in 1964, it became the station with the highest number of platforms ever to close, comprising 14 platforms...

 about 500 metres south of Blackpool Tower

Blackpool Tower

Blackpool Tower Eye is a tourist attraction in Blackpool, Lancashire in England which was opened to the public on 14 May 1894. . Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it rises to 518 feet & 9 inches . The tower is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers...

. Since the coastline is very straight and flat, the pier simply extends at right angles to the sea front, roughly level with the promenade.

History

The success of the North Pier

North Pier, Blackpool

North Pier is the oldest and largest of the three coastal piers in Blackpool, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.-Location:...

 prompted the formation of the Blackpool South Jetty Company one year later in 1864 (the pier now known as South Pier

South Pier, Blackpool

South Pier is one of three piers in Blackpool, England. Located on South Promenade in the South Shore area of the town, the pier contains a number of amusement and adrenalin rides. It opens each year from March to November and is owned by Six Piers Limited.-Construction and opening:The Blackpool...

 was some 30 years in the future at this point). Impressed with the construction of the existing pier, the Company hired the same contractor, Richard Laidlaw and Son of Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 for the new project. This time, however, they were following the designs of Lieutenant-Colonel John Isaac Mawson rather than those of Eugenius Birch

Eugenius Birch

Eugenius Birch was a 19th Century English naval architect, engineer and noted pier builder.-Biography:Both Eugenius and his brother were born in Gloucester Terrace, Shoreditch, to grain dealer John and wife Susanne...

. When the new pier was opened on 30 May 1868, it was 460 metres in length, 120 metres of which was a landing jetty for use at low tide. The original manager of the pier was Robert Bickerstaffe, coxswain of the first Blackpool lifeboat. Blackpool's lifeboat station is still located next to Central Pier.
From the start, the new pier's emphasis was to be on fun rather than genteel relaxation as with North Pier. In the early days, the fun was provided mainly by dancing facilities, but with the 20th Century came roller skating

Roller skating

Roller skating is the traveling on smooth surfaces with roller skates. It is a form of recreation as well as a sport, and can also be a form of transportation. Skates generally come in two basic varieties: quad roller skates and inline skates or blades, though some have experimented with a...

, rides and amusement machines. Also, steamboat excursions departed from the landing jetty as they did from North Pier. The dance halls became less popular after the Second World War, however, and so the facilities were gradually adapted to theatres, bars and amusement arcades toward the 1970s.

The pierhead theatre was modernised in 1986 and eventually came to be known as "Peggy Sue's Showboat". A striking addition came in 1990 when a 33 metre high Ferris wheel

Ferris wheel

A Ferris wheel is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with passenger cars attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, the cars are kept upright, usually by gravity.Some of the largest and most modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on...

 was erected, a half-scale reference to the Victorian attraction that had been part of the Winter Gardens

Winter Gardens, Blackpool

The Winter Gardens is a large entertainment complex in the town centre of Blackpool, Lancashire, England. It has twelve different venues, including a theatre, ballroom and conference facilities. Opened in 1878, it is a Grade II* listed building, incorporating various elements built between 1875 and...

 complex a century earlier.

Construction and adaptation

Central Pier is constructed mostly of cast iron

Cast iron

Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...

with wooden decking. The piles on which the structure rests were driven using the screw pile method pioneered by Eugenius Birch. This involved twisting screw-tipped cast iron piles downward through the sand until they hit bedrock. The materials and building techniques were thus similar to those used for North Pier but the structure of Central is a little more delicate in appearance.

The pier has suffered relatively little damage save for two fires in 1964 and 1973 which gutted the theatre buildings. The main structural alterations have been the removal of the obsolete 120-metre low tide jetty in 1975 and the construction of the Ferris wheel in 1990. The addition of the wheel required the mid-section of the pier to be strengthened somewhat to cope with the extra weight.

Attractions

• Trevor Chance's Legends
• Central Pier fair
• The Wheel
• Central Pier Family Bar
• Peter Sedgewicks Funfair
• Central Pier Family Entertainment Centre
• Old Tyme Portrait Studio

External links

• Central Pier Blackpool - Official Blackpool Central Pier
• The Heritage Trail - Blackpool Central Pier
• Engineering Timelines - Details of the pier's construction and history