The Royal Suspension Chain Pier

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Coordinates: 50°49′06″N, 0°07′51″W The Royal Suspension Chain Pier was the first major pier built in Brighton, England. Generally known as the Chain Pier, it was designed by Captain Samuel Brown, RN and built in 1823. The pier was primarily intended as a landing stage for packet boats to Dieppe, but it also featured a small number of attractions including (initially) a camera obscura. An esplanade with an entrance toll-booth controlled access to the pier which was roughly in line with the New Steine. Turner and Constable both made paintings of the pier, King William IV landed on it, and it was even the subject of a song.

Brighton beach with the Chain Pier in the background. By John Constable c.1824

The Chain Pier co-existed with the later West Pier, but a condition to build the Palace Pier was that the builders would dismantle the Chain Pier. They were saved this task by a storm which destroyed the already closed and rather decrepit pier on December 4, 1896.

The remains of some of the pier's iron piles, sunk ten feet into bedrock, can still be seen at the most extreme low tides.