'Peerless Peer' sheet music

Cover of the Music Folder for Peerless Peer

Hastings Pier was very fashionable when it opened in 1872. C H R Marriott, a composer of dance tunes, wrote this galop, a fast-paced forerunner of the polka.

When Eugenius Birch designed Hasting Pier he set an example many would follow. It was the first British pier to have a grand pavilion, which he included as an integral part of the design. Until then, pier entertainment had been limited to a band playing in a small bandstand exposed to wind and rain, but the new Hastings Pier showed that concerts, musicals and plays could be performed in comfort, and profitably.