Twentieth Century
In the early 1970s the pier was substantial strengthened with major steelwork renovations taking place. It was leased from the local council by Jim Davidson in 1996 and he soon found out how hard it was to repair. He invested around £750,000 of his own money, this was spent on the inside, but the outside was left as the lottery or local projects did not fund it. So it stood empty till is was demolished in 2005. By 2005 the front part of the pier has been totally re-developed as an amusement arcade.
Since taking over the lease from Jim Davidson, Family Amusements now run the entire Wellington and Wintergardens complex, along with the Britannia Pier further North on the seafront. The Winter Gardens is now a large children's indoor play area, with cafe and bar. Oddly, the aluminium trussing installed by Jim Davidson as part of the Wintergardens nightclub has been retained - as it looks very futuristic, all curves and strange shapes. By September 2008 the old theatre at the end of the pier has become a large bowling alley and bars. The original Steel, iron work has been restored and returned to the new building. The 100 year old original girders are now on show, and are visually interesting to see - having been originally hidden in the theatre roof space. The 'new' building is so similar to the (demolished) old theatre, that many visitors do not realise it is a new building. The ten lane full-size bowling alley takes up most of the space in what was the old auditorium and stage space. A stained glass picture which is 80 feet long and was found during the removal of the original Wellington pier theatre structure, has been restored and will be the centre piece of the entrance to the new complex. It depicts ships sailing into the port of Great Yarmouth.
Read more about this topic: Wellington Pier
Famous quotes related to twentieth century:
“War is bestowed like electroshock on the depressive nation; thousands of volts jolting the system, an artificial galvanizing, one effect of which is loss of memory. War comes at the end of the twentieth century as absolute failure of imagination, scientific and political. That a war can be represented as helping a people to ‘feel good’ about themselves, their country, is a measure of that failure.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state.... It’s become a fact of life that governments have become very intimate with people, most always to their detriment.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)
“... the nineteenth century believed in science but the twentieth century does not. Not.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Predatory capitalism created a complex industrial system and an advanced technology; it permitted a considerable extension of democratic practice and fostered certain liberal values, but within limits that are now being pressed and must be overcome. It is not a fit system for the mid- twentieth century.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we’ve developed to a very high level is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything.”
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)