A History of Blackpool & Blackpool Tower

Steve Newman Writer
11 min readOct 4, 2019

Britain’s Most Iconic Seaside Resort

Vintage Postcards of Blackpool

Blackpool is seen by many as an illuminated anachronism of the very worst, and the very best of the English seaside resort, but whatever your feelings it’s a step back into a time almost forgotten. Once there, and you’ve taken in several deep breaths of very fresh, very bracing Irish Sea air, climb aboard one of the original corporation trams and you’ll soon notice that Blackpool has a past that can be seen, and heard, as you clank and rattle passed three of the most beautiful Victorian piers you’re ever likely to see. Stay aboard the green and cream tram and you’ll witness a parade of 19th and early 20th century architecture at its most robust. And when you eventually get off the tram at the Pleasure Beach you can indulge yourself in the delights of one of the oldest fairgrounds in the world, with one of the biggest big dippers in the world too.

If you don’t fancy the big dipper you can still laugh along with the original Laughing Policeman — you might even spot a real policemen — and when giddy from the innumerable, and terrifying rides, you can (pink candy-floss in hand) take a horse drawn carriage back along the Golden Mile to the Tower Ballroom and watch, and listen, as the ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’ organ rises from beneath the stage in a fog of dry ice with the familiar chords of ‘Oh I Do Love To Be Beside The Seaside’, encouraging…

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