1863
North Pier opens on 21 May. Designed by Eugenius Birch and carried on pioneering cast-iron screw piles, it becomes Blackpool's first pier.
Read the opening report
Opened 21 May 1863
Built to keep going.
Eugenius Birch carried the pier on cast-iron screw piles: columns twisted into the seabed beneath iron girders and a wooden deck. During construction, storms proved the deck was too low, so the whole structure was raised by three feet.
The Illustrated London News recorded almost 20,000 visitors by noon on opening day, a two-hour procession and a promenade stretching 1,405 feet out over the sea.
- Visitors by noon
- Almost 20,000
- Engineer
- Eugenius Birch
- Structure
- Cast-iron screw piles
Image, above:Image, left: Opening of the New Pier at Blackpool: The Procession Returning from the Pier, The Illustrated London News, 30 May 1863. After a sketch by W. Woods of Liverpool.
Standing since 1863.
Ships, fire and storms make the continuity more remarkable. Each generation repaired the pier, rebuilt what was lost and found a new reason to walk out over the sea.
1874
The pier head is enlarged with twin wings and the Indian Pavilion opens for orchestral concerts and entertainment.
1892
The Norwegian barque Sirene strikes the pier in a gale, destroying shops and damaging the structure. The crew and even the ship's cat survive.
1897
Foudroyant, once Lord Nelson's flagship, breaks free in a storm and collides with the pier before being wrecked on Blackpool beach.
1921
Fire destroys the Indian Pavilion at the pier head.
1924
Lawrence Wright launches On With the Show, beginning a North Pier summer-season tradition that runs for 32 years.
See the programmes1936
A pleasure steamer returning from Llandudno strikes the pier, leaving visitors temporarily stranded beyond a ten-foot gap.
1938–39
A second pavilion fire is followed by renewal. The present Art Deco theatre opens in 1939.
1975
North Pier gains Grade II listed status, recognising more than a century of engineering, entertainment and survival.
Read the list entry1980s
A £350,000 restoration rebuilds the pier entrance in a Victorian style, preserving the character of the structure.
1985
Performer Vince Hill spots a fire in its early stages and raises the alarm. The 1939 theatre survives.
Late 1980s
With regular shipping gone, the landing jetty finds an unlikely new use as a helipad for pleasure flights.
1991
A 35-foot carousel and pier tramway arrive, creating new ways to experience the length of the pier.
1992
The MV Balmoral calls at North Pier, briefly reconnecting the landing jetty with leisure excursions.
1997
A Christmas Eve storm severs the landing jetty from the main structure and destroys the helipad.
2011
New owners begin another period of renewal. The theatre is renovated and relaunched later that year.
2013–14
Violent storms damage decking, windows and supports. Repairs and improvements return the full pier to use by April 2014.
2020
The theatre is renamed for Joe Longthorne and the former Carousel Bar is transformed into Bloom, bringing new life to the pier head.
2021
The Garden opens beside Bloom in the former solarium, adapting another historic pier space for a new generation.
2026
North Pier enters new ownership with a £10 million programme announced for its structure, theatre and visitor spaces.
Names in lights.
On the North Pier stage, summer seasons drew leading singers, comedians and television stars as the pier became part of Britain's variety circuit.
1940s–50s
Anne Shelton and Albert Modley. The long-running On With the Show and successive summer seasons made the new theatre a home for leading singers, comedians and variety performers.
Explore the theatre archive1963
Morecambe & Wise. Show Time put Eric and Ernie at the top of a North Pier bill that also featured Matt Monro, Lena Martell, the San Remo Trio and the Bernard Delfont Dancers.
View the 1963 programme record1979–92
Russ Abbot. The Black Abbots starred for a North Pier season in 1979. Russ Abbot later returned to headline four more summer seasons between 1983 and 1992.
Read the Gazette retrospective
Photo: Paul David EllisonThe Blackpool Pier Company monogram.
In the ironwork, the central casting reads B.P.Co., the abbreviation for Blackpool Pier Company named in the 1863 opening-day report. Its interlocked letters form a single Victorian monogram among the rose motif and repeated five-pointed stars that still frame the view towards Blackpool Tower.
The story is not finished
Still standing. Still working.
From the 1939 Art Deco theatre and Victorian ironwork to the bars and open deck, North Pier remains a working part of Blackpool, where visitors can still see a show, meet for a drink and walk more than a quarter of a mile over the Irish Sea.