Skip to main content
BFI logo

Home

Film

Television

People

History

Education

Tours

Help

  search

Search

Screenonline banner
Topical Budget 83-2: Easter Hurricane Effects (1913)
 

BFI

Main image of Topical Budget 83-2: Easter Hurricane Effects (1913)
 
29/3/1913
35mm, black and white, 56 feet
 
Production CompanyTopical Film Co.

Views of the remains of Worthing Pier and wreckage on the beach, after a hurricane.

Show full synopsis

A record of the trail of destruction wreaked by 80mph gales on Easter Monday 1913, during which a major part of Worthing Pier collapsed and was washed away into the sea, leaving the pavilion at the other end.

Originally opened in 1862, the pier had doubled as a tourist attraction and a landing stage for paddle steamers and similar pleasure craft, and in the first fifty years of its life it had gradually expanded to include kiosks and a bandstand.

At the time of the hurricane, the McWhirter Quintet was playing to a small audience, though the performance was quickly abandoned and the pier evacuated when it became clear that the structure had become unsafe.

Although the wrecked pier became a popular postcard image, and the stranded pavilion was given the jocular nickname 'Easter Island', repairs commenced almost immediately, and the restored pier was formally reopened just over a year later, on 29 May 1914.

Michael Brooke

Click titles to see or read more

Video Clips
Complete film (0:55)
GALLERY / SCRIPTS / AUDIO
SEE ALSO
Topical Budget 83-2: Famous American Carnival (1913)
Topical Budget 83-2: National Cross-Country (1913)
Topical Budget 83-2: Novel Seaside Sport (1913)
Topical Budget 83-2: War Office Test (1913)
Water Polo - Worthing Swimming Club (1898)
A Very Topical Year: 1913