"AH, DEAR Brighton—piers, queers and racketeers."

The PC nature of Noel Coward's semi-famous quote about our dear city may have well-passed its sell by date in terms of political correctness.

But in a few words he summed up the all-inclusive, quirky and very different nature to our city.

For those that prefer images though, there is only one picture that sums up this special place - the West Pier.

For 150 years, this marvel of Victorian engineering has represented everything the city is about - raffish, resilient and slightly rough around the edges, but entirely charming once you experience it.

When it was first built by Eugenius Birch in 1866, it was the younger, more beautiful sibling to the more industrious and pioneering Chain Pier.

A bandstand and concert hall followed - and despite the addition of the more modern and brasher Palace Pier in the early 1900s, for a century the West Pier was the epitome of seaside glamour.

Crowds came from all over for a stroll on the fabled decks which extended out into the sea, many more marvelled at it's classic sleek design from the shore.

But old mother time has the habit of catching up with everyone - and so it was that nature, fire and misfortune left the pier in its current state.

A skeleton of its former self still stands at the heart of the city's seafront. And while it remains unused it certainly does not remain unloved.

That's why it is the background to millions of pictures taken by visitors every year.

That's why so many people pay an annual subscription to a campaign group in the hope that it will be restored or a newer version rebuilt.

While the whimsical words of Noel Coward may have fallen well and truly out of fashion, the West Pier continues to survive everything that nature and humans can throw at it.

150 years on, what remains is as attractive, majestic and symbolic as the day it first opened.