West peer

A new flagship attraction could rise 600ft from the ashes of one of Brighton's most beloved institutions, reports Chris Borg
A mock-up of plans for a possible new flagship attraction in Brighton. Photograph: Nick Wood Photography

I've never really thought Brighton's "London-on-sea" nickname was appropriate. After all, the Sussex resort is known for its laidback feel and relaxed pace - hardly the most obvious attributes of life in Britain's frenetic capital.

But if new proposals for a key seafront site are eventually approved, Brighton will get its own version of one of London's most successful modern-day icons.

On a windswept, rainy morning late last week, with the promenade at its most alluringly bleak, David Marks and Julia Barfield, the architects behind the London Eye, revealed plans for what they are calling Brighton i360.

A 600ft observation mast, it would carry a pod holding up to 100 people gently upwards, providing dramatic and sweeping views of up to 25 miles on a clear day.

The futuristic, slender structure would be taller than both the Eye and Blackpool Tower, the Victorians' Paris-inspired take on providing a gull's-eye view of the seaside, but its narrowness would minimise impact on the cityscape.

And there's an enormous appropriateness to the site on which Marks and Barfield hope to create a new British resort landmark - it's the home of what remains of an old and celebrated one.

The London-based architects have selected the landward end of Brighton West Pier, which was the finest example of that most quirky of British architectural ideas.

In 1866, the maverick engineer Eugenius Birch created a gloriously elegant and whimsical pier that, despite the ravages of 30 years of dereliction, survived remarkably intact until legal wrangles, storms and two suspicious fires ruined restoration plans and reduced it to a wreck between December 2002 and summer 2004.

Marks feels the i360 plans are a fitting continuation of the pioneering ideals represented by Birch and his pier, and the tower - whose below-deck base includes a heritage centre celebrating the West's history - could help generate funds to lead to its restoration (the skeletal seaward end remains) and rebuilding.

In years to come, then, the West Pier could provide holidaymakers with views from both the air and the sea - a unique all-in-one visual and architectural spectacular.

"In the past, it was said that the West Pier allowed people to walk on water. We hope the i360 will allow people to walk on air," Marks said. "It is a brilliant site in a wonderful location, full of history and character.

"This is a continuation of the 19th century innovation that gave rise to the West Pier - the use of state of the art technology for the purpose of public pleasure."

The West Pier Trust, which owns the pier and has fought a long, arduous battle to save it, has been looking for a way to regenerate the area and says the i360 can bring a transformation from forlorn and ghostly to elegant and exciting.

"The question for the trust has not been an easy one," Glynn Jones, the chairman, said. "How should we use our site to uphold the heritage of the pier and promote regeneration of the city seafront?

"We believe this is the answer. We think it is entirely in the spirit of the pier's history, and Eugenius Birch would have been delighted."

The tower, which has been costed at between £15m and £20m and would take two years to build, would be privately funded, with its projected 550,000 annual visitors paying around £8 to take a trip to the top.

There's a long way to go, of course, but Brighton - so often troubled by seafront planning controversy and stop-start development proposals - might just be on the way to becoming known as the home of one of Britain's most (literally) uplifting tourist attractions.

And it wouldn't be dogged by one problem affecting plans for a far smaller seafront ferris wheel in Bridlington, Yorkshire. There, residents living in flats opposite the proposed attraction fear it would provide great views... into their bedrooms.

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