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I’ve been an avid reader of your brilliant column for ages, but please may I mention a little error on My Amazing Artwork (April 23), and also say something about this lovely coastal town… oops, city. Brighton now has city status and is actually in East Sussex, not West Sussex!

I used to live in Hove, a mile or so westwards, which many people think of as Brighton, but we locals used to correct them by saying, “No!… Hove actually.”

Some Hoveiites would cheekily describe Hove as being so clean, even the seagulls fly upside down!

The painting shows the entrance to the now sadly lost West Pier. All that remains of it is a skeleton of metal girders offshore. These used to support the end of the pier which offered a bar, restaurant, variety theatre, bingo hall and an amusement arcade which fell to fate, mainly due to financial pressures. The final blow was a storm and weather impact.

These ghostly skeletal remains are now listed as a Historic England protected site, so won’t ever be removed.

However, the city still has a pier, the Brighton Palace Pier, unless it’s threatened by another catastrophe, such as the one in January 1980 when the then Greek-owned cargo ship Athina B, carrying its load of pumice stone, narrowly missed colliding with it during a major storm.

It ended up beached alongside the nearby Volk’s Electric Railway. Hopefully, this pier will last longer than its now watery counterpart!

The large building shown is of the Metropole Hotel. During my time in the late 1970s when living in Hove, it was one of three major hotels on the seafront, together with the Grand and The Old Ship. Unfortunately, the Grand was bombed by the Provisional IRA in October 1984 but has since been restored to its former glory… unlike the West Pier.

John P Graham

Hampstead, North London

Ed: Thank you for the fascinating history lesson, John. We used to spend summers in Hove when I was little. My mum’s always had ideas above her station, and would rent a flat for the summer and insist we sit on the Hove end of the beach, rather than Brighton.

However, I’ve visited Brighton Pier many times and have to say I am rather partial to one of its regular vendor’s hot, freshly made mini ring doughnuts. Soz, Mum!