APRIL 2024 · ROAM
Weston-Super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare, Somerset
Birnbeck Pier has been closed since 1994. The walkway is impassable, the buildings on the island are open to the sky, the ironwork is separating from itself. It is also Grade II listed, which means the deterioration is protected. It will carry on decaying within the terms of its planning designation.
I went to Weston because of Birnbeck. It is the only pier in England connected to a natural island, and it is visible from the entire seafront, which means the rest of Weston-super-Mare arranges itself around an absence. The Grand Pier is four hundred metres south and draws crowds. Birnbeck draws photographers and urban explorers, who stand at the locked gate and frame it through the railings.
It is also Grade II listed, which means the deterioration is protected.
Birnbeck Pier — April 2024
At low tide the mudflats extend fully. The pier head and its cluster of Victorian structures stand on stilts above the grey-brown estuary. The Bristol Channel isn't blue. The clock tower on the island is intact; the roofs below it are not. Tyre tracks from a vehicle curve through the sand at the waterline — somebody goes out there, for some purpose.
The underside of the walkway is worth looking at. Iron cross-bracing forms geometric X patterns repeated along the full length, mirrored perfectly when photographed from below. The geometry is still sound even where the deck above it isn't.
The town runs parallel to all of this. The Tropicana — the old open-air pool — is shuttered, facade faded and blank. Loco Mexicano is still open, its giant orange sombrero sign bolted above the entrance. The Grand Pier's blue and cream building has a crowd gathered at the entrance on a Saturday afternoon. Everyone queuing for it has their back to Birnbeck.
A red wooden gate closes off the pier approach. Behind it, the buildings on the island are visible: brick walls, window frames without glass, a corrugated roof section lifted at one corner. The causeway walkway bows in the middle where supports have shifted.
The Victorian architecture of the island is still recognisable. The clock tower still reads the right time.
Birnbeck Pier's wooden pier head structure extending across tidal mudflats
Derelict wooden pier walkway stretching into grey Bristol Channel waters
Abandoned Tropicana Bar storefront with weathered facade and closed entrance
Wooden post and railing markers on empty sandy beach with grey sky
Curved tire tracks in sand with Birnbeck Pier structure visible at shoreline
Underneath pier view showing iron beams and wooden supports forming geometric X patterns
Symmetrical underside of pier with mirrored metal bracing and sand below
Loco Mexicano restaurant storefront with large orange sombrero sign
Multi-storey building facade with boarded windows and weathered patina
Grand Pier entrance structure with blue and cream coloring and gathered crowds
Cream building with floral mural artwork at street level in town center
Narrow alley with parking sign and concrete industrial architecture
Birnbeck Pier's crumbling brick structure on mudflats with clock tower visible
Red wooden gate entrance to decaying pier buildings on stilts over water
Birnbeck Island structures viewed from pier approach with damaged Victorian architecture
Derelict pier approach with abandoned structures partially submerged at high tide
Pier buildings with clock tower on mudflats during low tide showing full decay
Birnbeck Pier causeway and island structures with weathered brick architecture