Dutch Glory
From Brighton i360
Whenever I’m in Brighton, I look with some pride at the Brighton i360. This is because the 160-meter-long steel column, with a movable platform shaped like a large glass donut, is largely Dutch-made. Most Brits are less proud. It’s one of the most bizarre examples of taxpayer money ever wasted.
I still remember well when the observation tower, so to speak, opened in the summer of 2016. It was a glorious day. I bought tickets, but there was an hours-long wait, so I exchanged them for a visit a few days later.
That day was cloudy, a meteorological phenomenon not uncommon in this country. Along with a few other idiots, I climbed into the glass donut anyway. Soon after, the rise to the top of the tower began. We quickly found ourselves in the clouds and saw... nothing. The observation tower is so high that after a while we rose above the clouds. Then we saw... clouds.
That was all rather uninspiring. But even on a bright day, it’s not particularly remarkable. The lookout tower is located on Brighton beach, near the spot where a second pier once stood. Its skeleton still stands about a hundred meters out to sea. That skeleton looks quite impressive from a height of a hundred and fifty meters. The rest of the view - a pleasant city, a beautiful ridge, the Isle of Wight in the distance, a wind farm - are all things you can see just as impressively by simply taking a walk on the South Downs.
It wasn’t a success. Somebody had initially estimated that 750,000 people would visit the observation tower annually, about two thousand per day. The actual number turned out to be considerably fewer.
The tower was once a private initiative, but when the credit crunch hit in 2008, Brighton City Council decided to provide financial backing. Initially, the cost was eleven million pounds. When the tower was completed in 2016, it cost a total of 42 million pounds, of which over 32 million was paid by Brighton City Council.
The dreamed-of success failed to materialize. The council debt, largely due to unpaid interest, mounted. When the company operating the i360 went bankrupt at the end of 2024, the debt had risen to £51 million. This was written off in full. The i360 was sold to two local hospitality businesses for £150,000. Cocktails are now sold there.
Although, I shake my head a little as I look at the i360 in the distance, there's something elegant about that glass donut gliding up and down. Seeing it from a distance is, honestly, more interesting than the view from inside. It’s a bit pointless, perhaps, but that's often the case with Dutch glory.