Phase 1 - The Victorian Pier.
This is the actual pier structure itself up to and including the wooden deck and ornate cast iron handrails. The screw piles into the sea bed and the iron columns supporting the pier are fortunately quite sound. The cross tie bracing needs some attention and replacement. On top of these sit the lattice work steel gantries, again some need attention and others replacement. Quite a bit of the wooden decking and supporting joists has already been replaced by the previous owners, but much is still to do. The beautiful ornate cast iron railings need some repair here and there, and some new ones will have to be cast. Originally, ornate cast iron lamp posts graced the length of the pier. One of the main features when the pier opened was that it was "lit by electricity" - quite a novelty over 100 years ago.

Clearly the worst part of the pier is the seaward end, which has been closed since 1987. At this end, all of the steelwork gantries and wooden joists and decking need replacing. The handrails along one side collapsed last winter, and viewing it now is a grave vision of how the rest of the pier could look in a few years if action is not taken swiftly.

Phase 2 - The Art Deco Pavilion.
The present pavilion in the centre of the pier was built in 1933-4 and is largely intact. In my opinion, the pavilion is even more important than the pier itself. Whilst there are currently 54 surviving piers, this pavilion is totally unique in its design and construction and must be saved. Modernist buildings in general are very rare. They are not everyone's 'cup of tea', and have largely been overlooked for the past 70 years, which is helping to make them even rarer, as what few buildings remain are gradually lost to neglect and the greed of property developers who demolish them in order to develop the valuable land they stand on.
Read the 1934 review of the pavilion in "The Architect & Building News" here

The building was clad inside and out, covering up all the windows, in the late 1960's when it was converted into the Dixieland Showbar. In the Ballroom, which forms the main central part of the building, the original 30' x 12' stained glass ceiling or "lay-light" is hidden by the dreadful suspended ceiling. Workmen at the time simply smashed through the ornate Art Deco glass to suspend the new ceiling supports. This needs to be carefully restored with hand-made glass to match the original. Underneath yet more cladding, the original stage proscenium and the artistes dressing rooms and back stage areas etc. all remain largely intact, even down to the dressing room mirrors and wash basins!
The original decorative scheme was designed by Mary Adshead, and fortunately we have quite a detailed account of the colour schemes. Together with paint scrapings and further research, it should be possible to painstakingly restore the ballroom to exactly how it looked on opening night 70 years ago.
To either side of the Ballroom was a Bar and Cafe. The cafe featured Art Deco murals by Eric Ravilious. It is hoped that the careful removal of layers of cladding, plaster and paint may reveal these wonderful murals, or at least enough traces of the design and colours to enable their restoration or recreation. The fittings of both the bar and cafe have all been lost, and currently we are not even sure if the walls on which the murals were painted still survive, or were demolished during the 1960's refit. We just hope that somewhere, underneath all the rubbish and grime, these gems are waiting to be rediscovered.

Restoration to its former splendor will be a very time consuming and expensive process. There are bound to be trade-offs that have to be made between the needs of an authentic restoration, the need for the building to be commercially viable to secure its future, and perhaps the most difficult - complying with all the modern building regulations and safety requirements - none of which existed when the building was originally constructed.

Phase 3 - New Buildings.
It is essential that the pier has enough commercial space to make it a viable business proposition in the long run. This will ensure an adequate maintenance budget can be spent every year to keep the restored pier in good condition. No-one would argue that the dreadful shore-end building needs demolishing as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it is also the only part of the pier currently producing any income, so it can't be pulled down until other space is made available for the shops and catering facilities to move to.
Ideally, this building will be removed and replaced with a re-creation of the original pair of Moorish entrance kiosks that graced the entrance from 1900 until the early 1970's when they were ripped down. The plans do not survive, but from carefully studying photographs and postcards, it should be possible to create quite accurate scale drawings to rebuild these. A new, smaller attractive building could then be built on the pier neck to provide some retail space. A new building is planned for the very end of the pier, and several other smaller buildings along the length of the pier would also be built. Eventually, it is also intended to add a landing stage off the end of the pier to enable passenger ships to dock.
With the ornate late 19th century pier structure, and the striking 20th century main pavilion, it might be nice to put at least one cutting-edge 21st century building on the pier, to mark the restoration of the pier and her passage into the 21st century.