Worthing Pier — Attraction in Worthing

To me, this is how a pier should be - simple, unspoiled, stylish and practical. It was rebuilt in 1935 following a major fire, and has been preserved in this same form ever since. Very few piers can boast this admirable status. This has also been recognised in the form of a series of 'Pier of the Year' accolades. It won this award in 2006, and has been hovering in 2nd and 3rd place for the last few years as well. It is the only prominent Art Deco Pier, remaining in the UK.

At the shoreward end is the Pavilion Theatre, built in 1926 and designed by Stanley Davenport Adshead, architect of the underrated Colwyn Bay Pier Pavilion of 1934. Worthing's is a very theatrical building, with fancy domed roofs and attractive off-white stucco walls. The main length of the pier is sheltered with tiled glass screens, partially decorated with bright colours. Benches are distributed across its length. Midway down the pier is the amusement building. The interior is unremarkable: a small arcade with a plain, suspended ceiling. However, the exterior is outstanding and rather iconic. Towards the end of the pier is the Southern Pavilion, again with very attractive Art Deco styling. It acted as a cafe, which was excellent, with interesting teapots and large servings of cake. The furnishings and decorations in the pavilion are firmly Art Deco, and looked very distinctive.

The weather was very poor on our visit, resulting in the upper tier of the pavilion to be closed. It also resulted in us spending much longer in the pavilion than expected, which was certainly not unpleasant. Even in the rain, the pier is still a very enjoyable place to walk, unless you had a camera with non-weather-sealed lenses like I did.

This is definitely one of my favourite...

I have visited Worthing Pier several times, and every single visit has been both relaxing and peaceful for me.

The Pier is a great place to visit either by yourself or with someone else; it's also the perfect spot to take some stunning photos and videos, in my opinion.

A 15-year-old Journalist, I visit the Pier regularly at around 5am in the morning. I have found this attraction to be great for taking both photos and videos for my news website — Littlehampton Community News.

A Pier on the South Coast, no booking is required to visit the attraction, and it's free for everyone on every day of the week and during all hours. However, as with most places, you will need to pay for any refreshments and/or products that you wish to purchase while at the Pier, as hardly anything is free in life.

Although Worthing Pier is generally a safe place, petty crime has been known to affect the attraction but is quite rare and only usually happens late at night. As with anywhere, you should be careful and keep an eye out for any potentially dangerous situations, people, or things.

Given my positive experiences, I have decided to rate the Pier of Worthing a 5/5 because of both its calm atmosphere and the nice people that visit the attraction. I would recommend this attraction to anyone that I talk to and have already done so during many of my day-to-day conversations with both strangers and the people that I know.

Thank you for reading my review.

All the best,

Dwayne Hards — LCN's Founder and an aspiring, Independent...

This is a lovely venue but food and service lets the place down. The glass I was given to drink my bottle of water was greasy and smeared as you can see in the picture. I preferred to drink out of the bottle directly after getting this (which you have to get up to order and bring to the table yourself.)

The menu is basic greasy spoon food, which is if anything less versatile then your local greasy spoon caff because they print it clearly on the menu, "No changes" - meaning you get what they say in the menu on your plate. No swapping bacon for a sausage!

There is no waiter service and you pay up front... Exactly like at a greasy cafe. The whole experience is on the one hand upmarket, given the live pianist playing in the background and the art Deco building and the view, but down-market given the food quality, the caff menu and system of ordering and the lack of service. I think the owners need to rethink what market they are going for. It's literally a pricey mediocre greasy spoon caff (in a nice building).

It is also worth noting that when we called to book, we were told it was almost sold out but in reality for Sunday lunch, it was hardly a fifth full. Also, beware that the tables at the windows get very uncomfortable in the direct sunshine at midday and there are no options to shade or mitigate this.

This review would be one star less, ie 2 stars, but for the building and location itself, which on balance I think is worth nudging it just about to three. In reality it's...