Good Friday, 1865 is possibly the most significant day in the history of Aberystwyth (irritatingly known as ‘Aber’ by some locals, particularly students); on that day, the town got not only a new pier, but a new railway as well. And this wasn’t just any pier, mind … it was designed by Eugenius Birch, the undisputed Lord High Priest of Piers. Fairly straight-forward and functional to begin with (unusual for a ‘Birch Job’), the pier was later fancified by the addition of a glass pavilion, large enough to hold 3,000 people.

All piers are at the mercy of Mother Nature in one way or another, and Aberystwyth is no exception; over the years it has suffered cruelly at the hands of violent storms. The first one whipped a hundred-foot section off the end of it, just seven months after the pier had opened. Undaunted, the owners swiftly added a replacement section more than twice the length of the original. Such a blatant challenge to the weather gods was clearly not going go unpunished; sure enough, 72 years later another storm destroyed almost half the pier. This was never replaced, and by the 1970s what was left of the pier neck was so poorly maintained that is was closed to the public, leaving only the pavilion area by the shore remaining open.

Like a small man with eye-catching trousers, the pier owners have compensated for this current inadequacy by packing the shore-end with a truly unbelievable amount of fun. First off, there’s a pub – ‘The Inn on the Pier’, complete with its own karaoke night, and intriguing video displays of last week’s patrons. There’s a nightclub known as ‘Pier Pressure’, featuring both disco and hard house nights. Add to this a wine bar & brasserie, a snooker club, an Indian restaurant, a pizza palour … you can even rent videos here, for heaven’s sake! It almost seems a pity that the nearby Istanbul Kebab House is NOT part of the pier, particularly as the whole complex is popular with local students; these confident young pups return week after week, and delight in recording their routine and humdrum experiences in pretentious, affected and deeply depressing web logs.

Last Word

Aberystwyth Pier can be added to the long list of British Piers with ‘fun underneath’. Tony Cross of the Welsh Kite Trust met his wife down there while netting starlings.