MOST FAMOUS PIER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 35, 11 February 1935, Page 3

MOST FAMOUS PIER.

100 YEARS OLD

SOUTHEND CENTENARY,

30,000,000 HAVE WALKED IT. (Special.—By Air Mail.) LONDON, January 10. Southend-on-Sca is the great water playground of London's East End millions. Its pier is famous the world over, and at the end of this year it will be 100 years old. And in July Southend is to celebrate the centenary. This is an event of far more than local interest, for Southend Pier is indeed a national institution. It is affectionately known to Englishmen all over the world, and at one time it provided comedians with almost as many jokes as a mother-in-law. Its principal claims to fame, however, rest on more solid bases. It is the longest pleasure pier in the British Empire, being now 1J miles in length, and it certainly has more visitors in the course of a year than any of its rivals. Last year alone more than 2,500,000 people paid to pass its turnstiles, and more than 500,000 embarked or disembarked from the pleasure steamships at its jetties. Since it was opened its visitors have exceeded 80,000,000. Unhappily there is some obscurity still about its origin a century ago. But it is an undoubted fact that it first appeared in the Admiralty charts in 1835, and there is evidence of the visit of a Lord Mayor of London and of certain local junketings —perhaps the first Southend carnival—which were ro doubt associated with the opening ceremony. That first structure was only 500 yds in length. At various periods since then it has been successively lengthened, the last 500 ft being added only seven yearß ago. This year £15,000 will be spent on strengthening the first half mile and in improving the famous electric railway that runs from end to end. Southend has also in hand a scheme for the creation of the finest and largest open-air swimming pool in the world. The swimming pool will contain 1,250,000 gallons of sea water, and accommodate 3000 bathers at a time, while there will be seats for 10,000 spectators. The. cost will be £140,000, and the Southend Corporation hopes to have it ready for opening by Whitsun, 193 G.