i360, Brighton

Chrome Donut

The Chrome Donut is a big stick dominating the Brighton seafront by the crumbling wreck of West Pier. Its ‘real’ name is possibly the stupidest, most uninspired, obsolescent nonsense ever conceived for something that cost £46 million to build. The i360. It sounds like an accountancy firm that can’t quite add up. Even Apple appear to be dropping the dated ‘i’ lately.

The appallingly named i360 makes it to the top of its pole for the first time in a test run. It is very high. It is quite a feat of engineering. It is quite cool to photograph too – and this must be one of the very first of it at the top on its trial run. But, that pole is a really jarring eyesore on the Brighton seafront. It also casts an immense shadow across the promenade. I have totally mixed feelings about it, the almost pointless but amazingly engineered tourist attraction that no one wanted or needed. Like a pier maybe. Like the West Pier this thing is stabbed into the ground at the end of and is supposed to replace (they actually call it a vertical pier). It’s a thing of beauty in and of itself, but peering out of a chrome doughnut is never going to be as thrilling as perambulating in the sea air along the pier. There’s no dodgems or Waltzer on this.

I’m sure the views are spectacular and I’ll be going up it as soon as I can for curiosity. However, the southern view looks over the slowly decaying wreck of the West Pier, making the i360 appear like a mushroom growing out of the decaying carcass.

The name though. Someone needs to tell them. My vote is firmly with Chrome Donut.

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