Blackpool Tower, London
Blackpool Tower is 518 ft 9 ins tall, weighs 2586 tons, was completed in 1894 and the lift makes over 50,000 trips a year. Full of indoor entertainment, playground, aquarium and lots more. The listed Ballroom with its Wurlitzer organ and several shows daily. The Pleasure Beach has five roller coasters including a twin track racer! Set in 42 acres a host of attractions are available from travelling to the times of the dinosaurs, Alice in Wonderland, the Greatest Show on Earth, the Log Flume and Funshineland. The famous five miles of spectacular lights of the Blackpool Illuminations are from early September to early November.
The Blackpool Tower is a tourist attraction in the town of Blackpool, Lancashire, in northern England (grid reference SD306360). The tower is 158 m (518 ft 9 in) tall. It was inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It cost £42,000 GBP to construct, and it first opened to the public on 14 May 1894. It is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers.
History
People have been building towers for thousands of years. These have served many functions, as watchtowers, fortifications, temples, lighthouses, victory monuments, clock towers, minarets and cathedral spires. A tower can be an expression of religious devotion (minarets and spires), of power (the Tower of London) or of national pride (the Eiffel Tower). The one aim that all tower-builders share is the desire to impress, to create a sense of wonder.
Blackpool Tower is undeniably the most famous symbol of the resort. Standing over 518 feet high it dominates the Promenade looming over the Golden Mile like a colossus. It is without doubt the most distinctive seaside building in Britain. The tower can be seen from all over Blackpool and its images are everywhere. It is depicted on ornaments souvenirs, brochures and business cards. Blackpool would be unthinkable without the this grand Victorian monument.
Blackpool’s Winter Gardens and Opera House
When the famous publicist William Holland was recruited from London music halls to manage the Winter Gardens from 1887 until he died in 1894 - Winter Gardens really started to take off. Holland changed the feel of the place from up-market concerts to music hall and the renowned female human cannonballs costing only sixpence to get in. Grade II Listed, twelve venues no less are contained within Blackpool’s famous Winter Gardens, including the Opera House theatre. With a capacity for 3000, the Opera House dates from 1939 and stands as Europe’s second largest theatre.
The top of the Tower stays open until the wind speed reaches 45mph and then it’s considered too dangerous for the public to visit the viewing platform. The height to the top of the Tower’s flagpole is 518ft 9 inches, which is roughly the height of 39 London Double Decker buses stacked on top of each another. Between 1913 and 1946 the Tower’s telephone number was “Blackpool 1″.
Trevor Hemmings, the investor behind pub groups Trust Inns and Herald Inns & Bars, has taken a 3% stake in Mitchells & Butlers (M&B). M&B is currently mulling a merger offer with rival Punch Taverns. Hemmings owns approximately 600 pubs, including 102 pubs he bought from M&B in 2006 for £101m. A property and racehorse tycoon, Hemmings is also the owner of Blackpool Tower, has a stake in Preston north end football club and a personal fortune worth close to £1b.
