The Pier Today
Today the pier is open to the public once again with some small scale ferry services running mainly to Poole Quay. The pier also hosts a successful diving school, the oldest in the UK, and is visited annually by historic steamers including the Waverley paddle steamer and the MV Balmoral.
The pier is a popular training site for new and qualified divers because it is one of the few sheltered sea diving sites on the south coast, it has easy access from adjacent car parks, it has depths of only 5 metres and it has a nearby dive shop. The MCS South East group use the pier as the location for the training dives during their Marine identification and underwater photography courses due to the wide range of marine life found under the pier.
The small museum and gift shop on the pier provide a great attraction for the summer visitors. Many of the visitors to the pier are not divers and with this in mind an underwater camera has been set up to allow visitors to see the vast array of life that is present under the pier without having to their feet wet.
The restored pier was awarded the Pier of The Year award in the spring of 2012 by the National Piers Society.
Read more about this topic: Swanage Pier
Famous quotes containing the words pier and/or today:
“Duccio came not by usura
nor Pier della Francesca; Zuan Bellin’ not by usura
nor was ‘La Calunnia’ painted.
Came not by usura Angelico; came not Ambrogio Praedis,
Came no church of cut stone signed: Adamo me fecit.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“These native villages are as unchanging as the woman in one of their stories. When she was called before a local justice he asked her age. “I have 45 years.” “But,” said the justice, “you were forty-five when you appeared before me two years ago.” “Señor Judge,” she replied proudly, drawing herself to her full height, “I am not of those who are one thing today and another tomorrow!””
—State of New Mexico, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)