Take me to the water

EUGENIUS BIRCH, famed seaside architect who created coast-to-coast piers from Blackpool to Brighton, is also responsible for the latter’s Italianate aquarium with its vaulted arcade, which marks its 150th anniversary this year. Upon opening in 1872, the building, which stretched 700ft along the base of the East Sussex cliffs, proved a huge draw for fashionable resortgoers and members of the Royal Family, attracted not only by octopuses and sea lions, but exhibitions, lectures and concerts. Its colourful history includes an expensive redesign in the 1920s, during which the aquarium lost its clock tower but gained a ballroom, pagodas and bandstand; it was requisitioned by the RAF during the Second World War as tens of thousands were evacuated and the Luftwaffe targeted the town. The building became a Mod and jazz hangout during the 1950s and 1960s (The Who played on Wednesdays—entrance: 1s 6d); it had a brief spell as a vintage motor museum, before becoming a controversial dolphinarium in the 1970s. From 1991, it has been owned by Sea Life, has had more than £10 million spent on its conservation and is the oldest operating aquarium in the world.