West Pier Brighton & Hove

The historic West Pier, which closed in 1975, began to collapse into the sea in December 2002 and, having since caught fire twice, is just a dark shadow on the water. It’s a sad end for this Victorian marvel, where the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel once performed. Nevertheless it’s still quite an arresting, beautiful sight though the only flocks of visitors now are the thousands of starlings who swoop around it in winter.