The Daily Telegraph has named the 1.3 mile Southend Pier as “Britain’s greatest” in a new ranking derived via its own ranking metric, which takes into account Pier of the Year and Peter Mason awards, age, length, Grade-listed status, arcades, and even the proximity of a Victorian-era hotel.
Southend Pier has been named “Britain’s greatest” by the Telegraph, beating Cromer Pier and POTY 2025-winner Llandudno Pier to the top spot, based on the newspaper’s proprietary metric, which takes into account everything from age to the quality of its arcades.
Though pier purists may baulk at the paper’s automatic and controversial assertion that “the longer the better,” the ranking compared 60 piers across an exhaustive list of categories, with the Southend landmark scoring 540 points in total.
“In the end, size matters,” wrote Telegraph travel correspondent Chris Leadbetter. “Splitters of hairs may argue as to whether it is a seaside landmark or just a final hurrah for the Thames estuary, but there is no doubting Southend Pier’s credentials as a waterfront attraction.”
“At 1.3miles (2.1km), it is the longest pier not just in Britain but on the planet (scoring 100 points on this alone). Technically pre-Victorian in that it opened in 1830, it has everything you would want of such a structure: a fairground (25 points) with a ferris wheel (25 more), a theatre space (the Royal Pavilion; 25 points) and food-and-drink options that include cafe Tea With The Tide (20 points.)”
The tally was boosted by other factors including its Blue Flag beach, Grade II-listed status, and the proximity of the 1901 Palace Hotel, helping the pier nudge ahead of its Llandudno rival, which scored 500 points.
Though Cromer Pier lost points due to its comparatively short length and age, Leadbetter wrote “this stub of steel and wood has joys enough to rank highly in our table.”
“Its appeal is also apparent in its trophy cabinet. Clevedon aside, it is the only three-time Pier of the Year winner (2000, 2015, 2024; 90 points) – and the only double recipient (1997, 2003) of the NPS’s Peter Mason Award for Engineering Excellence (20 points).”
The piers making up the rest of the top ten were Clevedon, Worthing, Blackpool North Pier, Eastbourne, Brighton Palace Pier, Folkestone Harbour Arm, and Clacton.
“The last word should go to John Betjeman,” added Leadbetter. “‘The Pier is Southend; Southend is the Pier,’ he once said. Indeed.”
