Travel to Lowestoft and you’ll find yourself in Britain’s most easterly town. But for some folks, that still isn’t quite east enough – not to worry, for Lowestoft South Pier will take you even further toward the Orient. Have a close look at the person at the far end of the pier, and you’ll notice that they’re clearly puffed up with excitement, thrilled to bits at the knowledge that every other person in Britain is to their west. Stick around a little longer, and you’ll see that excitement fade as they remember the people out in boats.

Still, there’s more to Lowestoft South Pier than being really east; built in 1846 along with the habour, it has become one of Britain’s most provocative piers. For starters, it’s still called the South Pier, even though Lowestoft’s Claremont Pier is further south. Add to this the fact that it actually forms one of the habour walls (thereby disqualifying itself as a pier in the minds of some), and it becomes clear why the South Pier is mired in controversy. No doubt labourers at the Fisherman’s Wharf, the pier’s very own public house, get into just these sorts of heated pier discussions after a hard day’s graft.

The pier has seen several pavilions come and go, destroyed by fire and the like, and each of them has played host to some great talent. In the summer of 1972 you would have been able to catch a young-looking Status Quo, fresh from their tour with glam-rock masters Slade. Contemporary accounts suggest this was the gig in which ‘The Quo’ cemented their reputation as ‘kings of the twelve-bar boogie’.

Quo were followed a year later by the Jonathon King protégés 10cc, and the hard rock tradition continued into the 80’s with bands such as Bastille, featuring former Praying Mantis drummer Mick Ransome. Bastille promised to ‘bring mayhem to the masses’, but in the event the show passed without incident. In 1981 the pier welcomed Altered Images on their ‘Happy Go Lucky’ tour, wearing some of the most truly idiotic clothing ever witnessed in the history of pop. History does not record whether the crowd erupted into spontaneous laughter upon seeing the band walk on stage, but surely that must have been the case.

Black Saturday at the South Pier

Many holidaymakers in the early part of the century enjoyed pleasure trips from the pier on the old lifeboat, but how many of them were aware of the vessel’s terrible genesis? Back in the early 1880s, on a day forever to be known as ‘Black Saturday’, many men lost the lives in a shipwreck by the pier during a violent storm. Horrifically, the anguished cries of the drowning men could be heard quite clearly on the pier. One of the witnesses was John Sterry, and he determined there and then that this incident should not be repeated. Thanks to his subsequent efforts, the area was given a brand new lifeboat – the Carolina Hamilton.