West Pier destroyed by fire.
Firefighters have left the scene of a huge fire which tore through one of the remaining sections of the West Pier in Brighton.
The flames have left just the metal skeleton of the derelict pier standing.
The fire started in the old concert hall at about 0945 GMT on Friday and firefighters have said they believe it was started deliberately.
But Sussex Police say they are keeping an open mind about the cause until it is confirmed by fire investigators.
Earlier, Station Commander Phil Thompson, from Preston Circus Fire Station, said: "The fire is definitely of doubtful origin, there is no way it could have started on its own."
There were rumours a speedboat seen in the area early on Friday could be connected to the fire.
But this was ruled out by the coastguard after a check of vessels entering and leaving Brighton Marina was carried out.
Police agreed and said they had traced the boat and eliminated it and those on board from their inquiries.
They said they were keen to trace any witnesses or anyone with information.
The force is reviewing CCTV footage in an effort to find out how the fire started.
Firefighters had fought the flames from a number of boats, unable to access the fire from land due to the gap in the middle section of the structure.
They left the scene by 1500 GMT after an operation described as "effective".
An East Sussex Fire Brigade spokesman said the state of the tide and the loss of light had made it impossible to carry on the seaborne operation but that the brigade would continue to monitor the situation.
He said on Friday afternoon: "It is expected that the West Pier will continue to smoulder for some considerable time and it is not currently possible to place fire crews on the pier due to dangerous state of the structure."
Crowds of onlookers remained at the scene after the fire was brought under control, many taking photographs.
Fire will smoulder on
Security guards were deployed around the pier's entrance to keep the public away as a precaution.
Smoke from the fire began to engulf parts of Hove by mid-afternoon, blown there by a change in the direction of the wind.
Geoff Lockwood, chief executive of West Pier Trust, which owns the pier, said the fire would not hamper the redevelopment.
But he added: "We are puzzled by it. There's nothing combustible there, there is no electricity and there is no access from the land so how it started is a puzzle. There must be suspicion, it is deliberate."
The derelict West Pier is one of two piers in the city.
Brighton Pier was also hit by a fire in February which destroyed a fairground ride.
This fire comes only three months after part of the West Pier collapsed in the sea.
A walkway connecting the concert hall and pavilion fell into the sea in December after being battered by storms.
Bad weather caused further damage in January.
The pier - built in 1866 - has been in a state of disrepair for many years and has been closed to the public since 1975.
In February a £30m scheme to restore the derelict West Pier was approved by councillors at Brighton and Hove City Council.
Grade I listed pier
Although campaigners opposed to the scheme have vowed to fight for a public inquiry.
Many want to see the pier restored to its former glory but not in the design put forward by the West Pier Trust.
They say the planned development of cafes and bars at the promenade end of the Grade I listed pier would obstruct views of the sea.
On Friday Ken Bodfish, council leader said: "There was always going to be a substantial element of rebuilding rather than restoration.
"This will clearly mean far more rebuilding than envisaged."
The West Pier is a pier in Brighton, England. It was designed by Eugenius Birch, opening in 1866 and closing in 1975. The pier was the first to be Grade I listed in Britain but has become increasingly derelict since closure.
The pier was constructed during a boom in pleasure pier building in the 1860s, and was designed to attract tourism in Brighton. It was the town's second pier, joining the Royal Suspension Chain Pier of 1823. It was extended in 1893, and a concert hall was added in 1916. The pier reached its peak attendance during this time, with 2 million visitors between 1918 and 1919. Its popularity began to decline after World War II, and concerts were replaced by a funfair and tearoom. A local company took ownership in 1965, but could not meet the increased maintenance cost, and ultimately filed for bankruptcy. They could not find a suitable buyer, so the pier closed in 1975 and subsequently fell into disrepair.
The West Pier Trust now owns the pier and has proposed various plans to renovate it. Some schemes have been opposed by local residents and the owners of the nearby Palace Pier, who have claimed unfair competition. The pier gradually collapsed during the early 21st century. Major sections collapsed in late 2002, and two fires in March and May 2003 left little of the original structure. Subsequently, English Heritage declared it to be beyond repair. Structured demolition took place in 2010 to make way for the observation tower i360; further structural damage from storms has occurred since.
2003 was a catastrophic year for the West Pier.
On 28th March the Pavilion was destroyed in an arson attack, and then on 11th May the Concert Hall, already seriously damaged in a huge storm the previous December, was also deliberately set on fire.
English Heritage was commissioned to report on whether after such damage, the restoration was still viable. It concluded that despite the significant damage, given the wealth of salvaged material from the pier and the considerable photographic and video archive, repair and reconstruction of the pier was still viable. It was therefore bitterly disappointing that at its meeting on 28th January, the Heritage Lottery Fund decided to withdraw its funding of the project.
With the loss of lottery funding the restoration of the West Pier became impossible. Deemed a public hazard, the burnt-out Concert Hall was removed in 2010. The skeletal remains of The Pavilion, however, were left to become a feature of Brighton’s seafront. Its desolate beauty makes it much discussed, wondered about and photographed. The Trust has no intention of removing the remains unless overwhelming safety issues arise. But now beyond repair, they will inevitably degenerate and be reclaimed by nature. However the Trust remains hopeful that, with the success of British Airways i360, in due course a new contemporary West Pier, reflecting the brilliance of the original, will be built.
Pier. 1865-6. By Eusebius Birch. Cast and wrought-iron, wood, glass and lead.
EXTERIOR: the structure of the pier consists of cast-iron columns carrying beams and girders with diagonal bracing and lighter struts. The pier was particularly badly damaged by the hurricane of October 1987; and the causeway leading from King's Road to the former concert hall was demolished in 1991, along with the kiosk at the north end of the concert hall. The principal surviving structures are the former concert hall, the former theatre, and the kiosks at the north end of the theatre.
The concert hall is oval in plan and consists of a continuous arcade of elliptically-arched tripartite windows between pilasters, with decorative voussoirs; parapet with cartouches and swags and urns on pilasters; coved roof, the central part having dormers on either side and continuous toplight with pedimented ends from which a decorative balustrade of scrolled profiles runs down to the parapet. On the final stage of the platform, there are octagonal kiosks flanking the north end of the former theatre, of cast- and wrought-iron with roofs of lead; cast-iron columns on bases with a round-arched aracade between, the details of the opening originally loosely resembling those of a Palladian window; brackets to deep eaves; shallow coved roof with lantern. There is a smaller, ogee-roofed kiosk to the west of the theatre. The theatre itself is of 3 storeys with a verandah to ground floor on the west and a roof coved in 2 stages; small towers to either side of north end with ogee roofs, and a 3-storey porch wing between them.
INTERIOR: not inspected.