The Gravesend Town Pier is located in Gravesend,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. It was designed by

William Tierney Clark William Tierney Clark Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, FRAS (23 August 1783 – 22 September 1852) was an English civil engineer particularly associated with the design and construction of bridges. ...

and built in 1834 on the site of the earlier

Town Quay Town Quay is a quay and pier in Southampton, England. History A quay is first recorded on the site in 1411, known as Watergate Quay. This quay fell out of use in the 18th century and in 1803 was demolished and replaced with a new structure, use ...

. Over 3 million passengers were served between 1835 and 1842, but around 1900, this pier fell into disuse due to the arrival of the railways. In 2000, this site was restored by the

Gravesham Gravesham ( ) is a local government district with borough status in north-west Kent, England. Its administrative centre and largest town is Gravesend, which was known as ''Gravesham'' in ancient times. Gravesham was formed on 1 April 1974 ...

Borough Council, partly funded by the organisations

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

English Partnerships English Partnerships (EP) was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by regional development agencies on a regional level. On 1 December 2008 its powers passed to a successor ...

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

, Kent County Council, and Manifold Trust. In 2002, this renovation project was finished. They had also added a restaurant and a bar to the pier. When reopened, the Gravesend Town Pier was initially successful, but it later became a fiscal failure. Gravesend town pier is the oldest surviving cast iron pier in the world and is a Grade II* listed building.

Current services

Since 2012 the

Gravesend–Tilbury Ferry The Gravesend–Tilbury Ferry is a passenger ferry across the River Thames east of London. It is the last public crossing point before the Thames reaches the sea. History ''See also notes on Tilbury'' There were many ferries crossing the T ...

has run from the Town Pier.
On 4 November 2022,

Thames Clippers Thames Clippers (since July 2020 branded as Uber Boat by Thames Clippers for sponsorship purposes with Uber) is a river bus service on the Thames in London, England. The company operates both commuter services between eastern and Central Lon ...

announced that they had completed the purchase of the Pier, with an aim to operate a long-term River Bus service from Gravesend within 2-3 years. In recent years they have operated select sailings into Central London during high season.

Mention of the pier in other media

It is the setting of the 2017 song "Gravesend Pier" by Gone Molly, which describes a scene of poverty and wealth in nineteenth century England.

References

External links

View of the Gravesend town pier
Piers in Kent Gravesend, Kent Architecture in the United Kingdom {{Kent-struct-stub

Current services

Mention of the pier in other media

See also

References

Further reading

External links