West End Pier was one of two piers in Morecambe, Lancashire, England, built during the late 19th century to an eventual length of long and officially opened on 3 April 1896 by Colonel William Henry Foster MP. The pier was one of the first structures in the town to be installed with electric lighting in 1899. The pier suffered storm damage in 1977 and with repair costs of £500,000, the pier was instead demolished the following year. Layout Manghall and Littlewood, who were respected engineers from Manchester, proposed the pier should stretch from the promenade to the pavilion and a total of to the end of the pier head, to create an overall length of around half a mile. The width would be between with the pier head widening to to accommodate a bandstand and a landing stage for steamboats. Shops would be located around the outside of a pavilion building that would have a capacity of 2,000 people. The pier consisted of around three acres of decking with a stage that was in depth. History Planning Proposals for a West End Pier were made in 1878, when the West End Morecambe Pier Company proposed a structure. Fourteen years later on 18 November 1892, a consortium of businessmen from Morecambe and Bradford formed the Morecambe (Regent Road) Pier Company with £20,000 () in capital. Around the same time, a rival pier company, the Alexandra Road Pier and Pavilion Company, registered on 14 December 1892 with a £50,000 () capital and planned to build a promenade pier with a pavilion, concert hall and shops, creating a situation where two rival companies were planning on building a new pier close to the other. In 1893, the Board of Trade intervened and stipulated that both applications would be dismissed unless a mutual agreement between the two companies could be made, on the grounds that each planned pier would intersect with the other. The two companies subsequently met on 8 February 1893 with provisional agreement that one company, the Alexandra Road Pier and Pavilion Company, should take 750 shares in return for withdrawing their application. As part of the agreement, the Regent Road company would pay £100 cash towards expenses incurred by their rival company, give them 500 shares and create a position for one of their directors. The Alexandra Road Pier and Pavilion Company was dissolved on 15 September 1896. Construction Construction for