A large section of the West Pier has collapsed into the sea off Brighton seafront as Storm Austen swept along the Sussex coast on Friday 23 October 2026. Brighton and Hove News reported at 10.20am that a “significant section” of the remains had fallen. Footage sent to ImJustBrighton shows a collapsed section of ironwork lying in heavy surf beside what is left of the structure.
What happened. A section of the ruined West Pier fell into the sea during Storm Austen on Friday 23 October 2026, according to Brighton and Hove News.
The pier. Grade I listed, opened in 1866 and closed to the public since 1975. Only a ruined iron frame stands in the sea today.
Safety. The West Pier Trust says the structure “is dangerous and should not be approached”.
What next. Storm Boelo is forecast to arrive on Saturday 24 October, according to Brighton and Hove News.
What the footage shows
Clips filmed from the seafront in rough sea show the remaining frame of the pier standing in heavy surf. Beside its base, a tilted section of lattice girders lies in the water with waves breaking over it.
We cannot say from the footage alone exactly which part of the pier fell or when, and no official statement on the extent of the collapse had been published when we wrote this.
Storm Austen on the seafront
Storm Austen, the first named storm of the season, brought a Met Office yellow wind warning for Brighton and Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex on Friday, according to V2 Radio. Gusts reached about 70mph at Bognor Regis by 6am, according to V2 Radio’s live blog.
The warning said large waves could throw beach material onto seafronts and coastal roads, including in Brighton. More wind and rain are forecast into the weekend.
Why the West Pier keeps falling in storms
No engineer’s report on this collapse has been published, so there is no official explanation for why this section went. What is on record is the state the pier was already in.
No money to maintain it. The Trust says the ruin “is in a state of active collapse and has been for three decades”, and that it does not have the funds to maintain it in a steady state.
The fires. The Trust says the pier was destroyed by two arson attacks in 2003, which ended hopes of restoring it. According to Wikipedia, the fires burned the pavilion and what remained of the concert hall.
A pattern of storm collapses. Wikipedia also records sections falling in storms in December 2002, January 2003, June 2004, February 2014 and February 2016. In November 2022, Brighton and Hove News reported that Storm Claudio left a section on the south west corner hanging off the structure.
Put together, the record shows the pattern: big storms have taken pieces of the pier again and again, and the Trust calls holding the remains steady “technically just not feasible”.
What is left of the pier
The footage shows the tallest part of the surviving frame, a row of curved iron arches standing on its legs in the sea, with birds perched along the top. Alongside it, a long horizontal run of lattice ironwork stands on iron legs with waves breaking through it. The rest of the pier that once reached out from the seafront is gone.
A short history of the West Pier
1866. The pier opened on 6 October 1866. It was designed by Eugenius Birch and was 1,115 feet (340 metres) long, according to Wikipedia.
1916. A large concert hall opened in the middle of the pier.
1975. The pier closed to the public. It is Grade I listed.
2002 to 2004. Storms brought down a walkway and the concert hall. Two fires followed in 2003, on 28 March and on 11 and 12 May. In June 2004 high winds caused the middle of the pier to collapse.
Later years. Sections fell in storms in 2014, 2016 and 2022. The Trust says it is now “investigating the creation of a new contemporary West Pier for Brighton”, separate from the ruin, which it is not planning to restore.
The pier burned twice in 2003. A video of the burning pier is on YouTube (it starts one minute in).
How long has it got left?
Nobody has given a date. The Trust says it does not know when further collapse will happen but is certain it will, and that the ruin “most probably will eventually become an off-shore reef only revealed at low tide”.
More high winds are on the way. Brighton and Hove News says Storm Boelo is due on Saturday 24 October.
Staying safe
The Trust says its plan is to mark the site, warn people to keep away and remove debris that reaches the beach at low water. Keep well back from the water’s edge in rough seas, and do not try to get close to the structure or any debris on the beach.
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