Eleanor Harris: An Eye On British Airways i360

Restoring the ‘White Cafe’ arches & getting involved in the community

This week work is gathering apace on our beach building. The concrete frame has already gone in and our contractors have built around one third of the 60 columns, which will support the roof. We expect the roof to be added in early October.
At the rear of the building hidden underneath the pavement on Kings Road are a series of arches. When the building is completed, these will be hidden from view and become our back of house area for storage, our recycling store and staff facilities.
These arches are not part of the original 1866 West Pier, but were in fact added 20 years later. Like much of the Victorian seafront they are crumbling and have been propped up with supports for many years.
We had originally planned on refurbishing them, but our structural engineers advised that the arches are too heavily corroded and dilapidated and will need to be rebuilt. Two of the arches, known as the ‘White Cafe’ are structurally sound and will therefore be restored. We were granted planning consent to rebuild them earlier this year.

In preparation, we spent 6 weeks this summer installing 114, 5 metre long, ground anchors to ensure that the rear wall of the i360 beach buildings, which supports the footpath and highway on Kings Road, will continue to stay supported.
We expect the arches work to take approximately 3 weeks. During the rebuilding period any waste material is segregated on site and recycled.
Having signed a lease for 125 years, the i360 beach buildings and tower are designed to stand well into the next century and beyond. Therefore they need to be able to stand the test of time as we are creating the future heritage of Brighton seafront.
Meanwhile we have been busy in the community. We hosted four fully booked free tours as part of Heritage Open Days and held a sold out talk with our chief engineer. We had a community stand at the Costume Games with an appearance by a stilt walker dressed up in an amazing i360 costume designed by Brighton fashion designer Jess Eaton.
Pics: Gary Eastwood and Kevin Meredith
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