The Pier Company took the Pier over from the London and North Western Railway Company at a cost of £1,250. The first meeting of the Pier Company was in November 1875 and was signed by J. A. Cheeseman who was both Secretary and Pier Master. The Sixth Annual Report refers to a Pavilion and Swimming Baths about to be erected. The next year's Report (1882) announced the contract was let. The roof of the new Pavilion had not been on very long when 'on January 26 1883, a very heavy gale from the south west blew in the Dome and the whole of the south gable of the Pavilion, smashing iron, wood and glass and causing great destruction'.
The Grand Hotel has 156 bedrooms and was the largest hotel in Wales until 1976. It was opened in 1901 on the site of the old Bath's Reading Room and Billiard Hall, built in 1855. The Western Annexe which became the Bath's Hotel in 1879 was demolished in 1900. The rubble was used to fill up what was then Britain's biggest indoor swimming pool. This opened in 1884 beneath the Pier Pavilion. On the 5 December 1973 an Irish arsonist caused £200,000 worth of damage by lighting a fire in room 414. He was caught and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Original Index No. D0668.