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The money has been awarded by the National Heritage Memorial Fund, from the Cultural Assets Fund.
This funding, along with further funding from Historic England and the RNLI, will mean the ‘legs’ of the Grade II* listed pier can be stabilised and restored, and a walkway installed, to reinstate access to the Island.
We’ll then be able to move forward with our plans to see the island regenerated for the benefit of the local community and enabling the RNLI to pursue its ambition of re-establishing a lifesaving facility there.
For many years, partners have worked together to try and save the much-loved pier. We’re working tirelessly to secure a sale with the private owner, while also continuing with the Compulsory Purchase Order.
We hope this will result in us owning the pier shortly, so we can start to use this new funding and restore it
Birnbeck is the only pier in the UK to link to an island. It opened in 1867 and the RNLI set up its lifeboat station in 1882, with volunteer crews serving from there for 132 years.
The pier also played a vital role during the Second World War as a site of experimental activities and weapons testing and was the backdrop to a famous 1963 publicity photograph of then up-and-coming group The Beatles.
It closed to the public in 1994 and was placed on Historic England’s at-risk register in 1999.
The RNLI were forced to leave their station in 2014 as the pier became too dangerous to walk across.
We’ve also been awarded a £234,761 development grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, as an initial grant to support further project planning in more detail. This is ahead of a potential delivery grant of £4,525,761 for the repair and regeneration of Birnbeck Pier.