Worthing Pier and the Southern Pavilion: the back story

About Worthing Pier and the Southern Pavilion: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Brighton Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Worthing Pier opened in 1862 and has been rebuilt twice. Its Southern Pavilion, rebuilt in Art Deco style in 1935 and restored over fifteen months before reopening in 2022, is one of the finest buildings on the south coast.

Of all the piers on the south coast, Worthing’s has had perhaps the most dramatic life. It has been cut off by a storm, burnt down, blown in two by the army and saved from decline, and in 2019 it was named Pier of the Year by the National Piers Society, an honour it first won in 2006.

A Victorian pier

The pier, designed by Sir Robert Rawlinson, opened on 12 April 1862. It was originally 960 feet long and 15 feet wide, a simple promenade over the sea. In 1888 it was widened to 30 feet and its head enlarged to take a 650-seat pavilion, and on 31 August 1896 the pier hosted Worthing’s first moving picture show, now marked by a blue plaque.

Check opening times and trains on the official sites before you travel.

Storm, fire and war

On Easter Monday 1913 a storm brought down most of the pier, leaving only the southern end standing out at sea, cut off from land. Locals called it “Easter Island”. A rebuilt pier opened on 29 May 1914.

In September 1933 fire destroyed the pier and all but its northern pavilion. It was rebuilt in the Streamline Moderne style, and the new pier opened in 1935: the structure you walk on today, now Grade II listed. The Southern Pavilion at the far end was rebuilt in Art Deco style at a cost of £18,000.

In 1940, after Dunkirk, the pier was requisitioned. Army engineers blew a hole in it so that it could not serve as a landing stage in the event of invasion. After the war the pavilion was restored and entertainment returned.

The Southern Pavilion

The pavilion at the end of the pier has had many lives: a concert hall where the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham performed, a wartime lookout, a seasonal café, three different nightclubs between 1990 and 2013, and a wedding venue and tea room. By 2019 almost none of its original interior remained.

That year the team behind Perch on the Pier took on the lease. The restoration took fifteen months, stretched across the pandemic: a rotten subfloor was rebuilt across 420 square metres, historic Crittall doors were rescued from behind boarded-up fire exits, original 1930s glass tiles were uncovered and kept where they were found, and 10,281 floor tiles were laid by hand. The pavilion reopened in April 2022.

Visiting today

The pier is owned by Worthing Borough Council. At the land end are the Pavilion Theatre and its Atrium Bar; at the far end, the Southern Pavilion is home to Perch on the Pier for lunch and dinner and, upstairs, Ebb, a thirty-six-cover restaurant. Fishing is allowed from the pier: check the council’s pier page for opening times and rules.

Our advice: walk out at sunset, when the low light catches the pavilion’s curves and the Downs turn gold behind the town, and book a table at the far end before you go.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Worthing Pier and the Southern Pavilion: the back story before you go.