Visitors flock to the i360 all year round and it's hailed as the most unique venue in the city but older residents may be getting a sense of 'deja view' because in 1964, a firm of Canadian engineers unveiled plans for a 1,000 ft high, £1 million ‘Skydeck’ on the seafront. And the design was not dissimilar to the i360:
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The project was the brainchild of three entrepeneurs, Captain Raymond Phillips, Charles Smith-Bingham and John Bickford-Smith. The structure was to have three observation decks at 600 ft, fitted out like an ocean liner plus bars, a nursery and a ‘marine land’ - a pool containing dolphins and porpoises. Three lifts were to carry 1,500 people an hour to the top of the tower, which was to be linked to the beach by a new pier at the bottom of West Street.
More recently, in 2004, another Phillips - this time Brighton architect Alan Phillps - drew up plans to build a 'Pleasure Island' between Brighton's two piers, about two-thirds of a mile off the coast. The plans detailed a £500m, 1,951 sq m star-shaped island covered by a huge glass dome which would give 24-hour artificial sunshine, plus a 50-storey hotel, heliport, conference halls, flats, shops, bars and a spa.
Phillips told the 'Evening Standard'. He explains: "It was partly inspired by the need for a secure conference centre and also by the utter sadness of seeing people excited about coming to Brighton for a beach holiday and then being beset by bad weather."
The misguided and out-dated concept that people came to Brighton purely for beach holidays and were unable to enjoy the city because of bad weather could partly explain why the idea of the island sank without trace.
To read more about the history of Brighton and its seafront, read http://www.rosecollis.com/books/new-encyclopedia-of-brighton/www.rosecollis.com
