It was notable for its length of 3,787 feet (1,154 m) and for appearing in the opening sequence of Ken Russell's first feature film French Dressing.

[1] It was destroyed in a storm in 1978 and dismantled in 1980, leaving a stub with sports centre at the landward end, and part of the landing stage isolated at sea.

According to The Illustrated London News of 1850, Herne Bay had fewer than a dozen inhabitants at the beginning of the 19th century, until a military encampment prompted expansion of population.

The first wooden pile was driven on 4 July 1831, and the structure was completed on 12 May 1832 at a cost of £50,000 (equivalent to £4.6 million in 2023) when the steamer Venus brought the first passengers, in the same decade as Telford Terrace, the Pier Hotel and the promenade.

[4][5][6] It was built all of timber, with the piles being driven straight into the sea bed; it was "considered at the time the best specimen of pile-driving", and described as a "pier and breakwater".

[7] The pier's length was defined by the one-fathom draught of the paddle steamers and the shallow two-fathom depth of the sea even three quarters of a mile offshore at high tide.

By 1850, many piles had been replaced with iron ones, or with wooden ones "prepared by Mr Payne's process" against shipworm,[2] but as a whole they showed irreversible deterioration from 1860 onwards.

Waterlow made an entrance, arriving by train with uniformed sheriffs and a retinue of "gorgeously clad" minions in purple, chocolate and green livery.

His procession was led by the East Kent Militia to a town hall lunch, regatta, fireworks and dances with ten thousand celebrating locals.

The third pier was built of iron and designed by Head, Wrighton & Company of Thornaby-on-Tees at a cost of £60,000 including fittings (equivalent to £6.3 million in 2023).

At a short distance from the entrance was a large concert marquee for the local Cremona orchestra, and an electric tram provided transport from one end to the other for a penny.

[3] On 1 March 1949 the pier entrance suffered sea-storm damage, and again between 31 January and 1 February in the North Sea flood of 1953, when a twenty-foot storm surge swept past the old pier-master's house, Richmond Villa, and as far as the High Street.

[3] As replacement, the Pier Pavilion was designed in 1971 by John C. Clague, opened by Edward Heath on 5 September 1976, and called The Cowshed by the public.

[5] The Association of Hotels, Business and Leisure (HBL) has been promoting the rebuilding of a deep-sea pier, and has created and costed its own design.

[18] As of February 2010, the sports centre was due to be closed in 2011, and on 22 February 2010 the £10,000 Herne Bay Pier Report was published by Canterbury City Council in association with Humberts Leisure, with the suggestion that the Herne Bay Museum and King's Hall sites be sold for redevelopment, to pay for a new build on top of the remaining pier stub.

[24] The Duke of Cambridge arrived at the pier in Herne Bay Steam Boat Company's PS City of Canterbury under the Royal Standard in 1837.

There were two serious accidents on the first pier: in 1840 a woman with a wooden leg was knocked down and killed by the trolley which again in 1844 hit a porter who lost his arm.

[26] Cricketer Godfrey Evans used to box on the pier: "he would take on all comers at £2 a bout until his county Kent, fearing for his eyesight, told him to stop".

This was organised by Canterbury City Council and Humberts Leisure, who wrote the Herne Bay Pier report.

[10][32] With a loan of £25,000 in 2012, the trust prepared for the construction of 12 retail kiosks along the promenade, opened by the celebrity, Sandi Toksvig and rented out at £60 per week to local start-up businesses.

[33] Considering funding requirements, the trust is investigating the possibility an energy company might create a lagoon in the bay, with turbines under a newly built pier walkway to generate energy from the tides; an EU directive exists stating a third of electrical power must come from renewable sources by 2020.

It is a priority for local people of Herne Bay to reinstate their pier to its former status as a seafront focal point.

Punch and Judy shows have always taken place during summer right next to the pier on the beach to the west of it, and this tradition is continued in the annual Herne Bay Festival.