Hastings Pier Opens
From the Hastings News of 09/08/1872
The pier opened on 5 August, the bank holiday, by Earl Granville, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, with Thomas Ross, mayor, Mr Kay-Shuttleworth MP and Thomas Brassey MP. There was heavy rain. The Coastguard formed a guard of honour at the station, the Artillery and Rifle Volunteers lined the pier, and there was a salute by town’s guns at the pierhead. “A peerless pier - a pier without a peer”. Some christened it the “Palace on the Sea”.