The Town Pier - West Street, Gravesend, Kent, UK - Official Local Tourism Attractions on Waymarking.com

The UK Attraction website tells us briefly about the Town Pier:

"Gravesend’s Town Pier is the world’s oldest remaining cast iron pier and was built in 1834 as a passenger pier. Perhaps the most striking aspect is the colour mosaic at the front of the pier depicting the Gravesend Watermen’s Riot of 1833. Many of the colonial settlers departed for their new lives from this pier, as did many of the crews involved in the early voyages of discovery. The Town Pier is undergoing extensive renovation work in order to return it to its 19th Century glory."

There is a small cluster of history at this location with: The Town Pier, Town Pier Square and The Three Daws public house. This information table carries information on each of them as follows:

The Town Pier
Town Pier Square and the oldest pub in Gravesend

Town Pier Square and the Town Pier
This is a site old enough to appear in the Doomesday Book. Before 1833 it had a variety of names including Town Quay, Town Bridge or Causeway.

In the 1600s the west side was the side you might have least wanted to visit because that was where the horses were washed and where the ducking stool punishments were carried out.

In 1828 an Act of Parliament was granted to improve the Town Quay. The old buildings on the western side (including the famous 'Christopher Inn') were demolished and the line of the wharf was straightened and widened.

The 'Pier Hotel' was built on part of the site of the 'Christopher' and a flight of steps, which is still there under the Town Pier, was erected in front of the wharf dow to the causeway.

Town Pier, the world's oldest remaining cast iron pier
Designed by William Tierney Clark and built in 1834, this is the oldest remaining cast iron pier in the world. The pier faced a lot of opposition from local watermen before it was built. A high point of the opposition was the Watermens Riot in 1833 when the watermen attacked a temporary wooden pier.

The Gravesend/Tilbury Cross Ferry ran from the Town Pier until 1965. Gravesend Corporation had sold the pier in 1884 but in 2000, Gravesham Borough Council purchased and then restored it.

The 'Three Daws' - a pub that is over 500 years old
You are standing in front of the 'Three Daws' which is the oldest public house in Gravesend and possibly in Kent. Named after a type of bird, you can find early references to it in 1488 when it was called the 'Cornish Chough'. Later is was known as the 'Three Cornish Choughs' before settling on 'The Three Daws' from 1778. The pub is famous for its secret tunnels, an extra key to a lost door, tales of smuggling and men escaping from press gangs.

The information table also contains illustrations of the area in yeas gone by.

The pier is Grade II* listed with the entry at the English Heritage website telling us:

"Pleasure Pier. 1831-4 by WT Clark, Civic Engineer. T-shaped construction of cast iron resting on 2 rows of 4 cast iron Doric columns at the shore end and 3 rows of 6 columns on the river side with cast iron arched ribs. These had 2 pavilions at the angles of the T-portion with shipped roofs supported on decorative columns with cast iron cupolas above with urn shaped finials. These pavilions remain but were later boarded in. Originally one of the cupolas had a clock and the other a bell. Between these pavilions is a 35 feet high cast-iron light-house, cylindrical with blocked light at top surmounted by finial. Later in the C19 the remainder of the pier was roofed over and has 12 wooden pilasters and 12 C20 casements. The base of the walls is of tongued and grooved boards, above C20 corrugated iron. Original stone causeway beneath pier. Front has a C20 addition in yellow brick with wooden canopy with fretted cornice and 4 decorative cast iron columns. Probably the earliest surviving iron pleasure pier in the world."

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