Qualla: Skegness Pier

Skegness Pier: Introduction

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Snapshots Of The Past, CC BY-SA 2.0. In November 1877, a group of local businessmen gathered at the New Inn in Skegness to ask a simple question: should the town have a pier? They launched a national design competition with a prize of £50 for the winner. Engineers Clarke and Pickwell took the prize with a proposal for a cast-iron pier 25 feet wide, with a concert hall at the head capable of seating 700 people. By June 1881, the pier was open. The Duke of Edinburgh — Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha — performed the honours. Skegness had its pier, and for a time it was the fourth longest in England at 562 metres.

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Image: Snapshots Of The Past | CC BY-SA 2.0

Skegness Pier: A Pier for Steamboats

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alan Heardman, CC BY-SA 2.0. From 1882, a steamboat service ran from the pierhead across The Wash to Hunstanton in Norfolk. The journey was popular enough that local businessmen formed the Skegness Steamboat Company to charter boats for the holiday season. Passengers could walk the length of the pier, buy ti...

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Image: Alan Heardman | CC BY-SA 2.0

Skegness Pier: Wars and Storms

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MOTORAL1987, CC BY-SA 3.0. During the Second World War, Skegness Pier was closed and sections of its decking removed. This was policy: British coastal piers were deliberately disabled to prevent them being used by enemy forces as landing platforms. The pier sat in this altered state until 1948, when repair...

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Image: MOTORAL1987 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Skegness Pier: What Survived

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MOTORAL1987, CC BY-SA 3.0. The contemporary pier is a layered structure, its different sections marking different eras. The original Victorian main deck still stretches along the beach. The central section dates to the 1948 post-war repairs. The entrance pavilion is from 1970. Walking the pier is, in a qui...

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Image: MOTORAL1987 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Skegness Pier: Looking Out to Sea Again

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Pickersgill, CC BY-SA 2.0. New owners took over the pier in early 2021 and announced plans to restore it to its original length. Whether that ambition becomes reality remains to be seen — pier restoration projects have long histories of ambition and complication. But the announcement captured something rea...

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Image: David Pickersgill | CC BY-SA 2.0