'Jinxed' Southend pier ravaged by fourth fire

The blaze could be the biggest setback in the pier's 175-year history. Southend Borough Council, the owner, is in the grip of a financial crisis and there are those in the town who believe that rebuilding could be relegated below more pressing priorities. Officials said it would take at least two years to repair.

Mr Dolby, 67, experienced first-hand the first three fires. He also helped in the clean-up operation when, in 1986, the MV Kingsabbey sliced through the middle of the 1.3-mile pier leaving a 70ft hole. He didn't want to miss out this time. "When I was first told I thought I was having my leg pulled. We've had two fires at the dry end - now we've had two at the wet end to match."

Last year, buoyed by a £5m European investment in the new pier entrance, it attracted 400,000 visitors.

The story of the pier began began in a spirit of optimism. In the 1820s local dignitaries watched with envy as the Thames paddle steamers ferried the London gentry past Southend to fritter away the season at Margate in Kent. Something had to be done, and construction began on a 100-yard wooden pier.

By the middle of the century the pier was extended and a horse-drawn railway was added. But with visitors soaring afterthe railway line to London opened, safety fears grew. The iron structure which largely exists today was built to cope, and completed in 1889.

In 1959 a major fire destroyed the old Victorian Pier Pavilion. It was replaced by a bowling alley. In 1976 the pier head was devastated for the first time. By 1980 it was on the brink of closure. The process of regeneration was slow. The East End masses who once came at the rate of a million a year had discovered the warmer climes of Spain. But the collision with the Kingsabbey and then the second shore-end fire, which destroyed the bowling alley, could not reverse the rising fortunes of the pier. Until Sunday.