Blackpool Tower

Listen first. Gulls cry above the promenade. A tram bell rings somewhere behind you. The wind comes in off the Irish Sea, cool and salty, and it carries the smell of chips and vinegar from the stalls nearby. Now tilt your head back. Above all of this, a lattice of red-brown iron rises into the sky. It looks almost delicate from down here, like lace drawn against the clouds. This is Blackpool Tower, and for well over a century it has been the first thing people look for when they arrive in this town.

The tower opened to the public in 1894. Its builders were open about their inspiration. A few years earlier, Paris had unveiled Gustave Eiffel's iron tower for the great exhibition of 1889. Blackpool's leaders saw it and wanted something similar for their own seafront. The result is shorter than its Parisian cousin, but it stands about 158 metres tall. That was a remarkable height for a seaside resort in late Victorian England. It still dominates the flat Lancashire coastline today.

Here is the first thing many visitors miss. Look at where the tower meets the ground. In Paris, the four legs stand apart over open space, and you can walk beneath them. Here, the legs disappear into a large brick building. The tower does not rise from a plaza. It rises from a palace of entertainment. From the start, the idea was simple. People would come for the view, and then they would stay inside all day, out of the wind and rain.

That idea made sense because of who came here. In the nineteenth century, the mill towns of northern England had a tradition called wakes weeks. A whole town would close its factories for the same week, and thousands of workers would head to the coast together. Blackpool became their favourite destination. The railways brought them in by the trainload. These were people with a few precious days of freedom, and the tower was built to give them as much wonder as possible for their money.

Inside the base, the most famous room is the Tower Ballroom. It opened a few years after the tower itself, at the end of the 1890s. The interior was designed by Frank Matcham, one of the great theatre architects of his era. Picture a sprung wooden dance floor, tiers of balconies, gilded plasterwork, painted ceilings, and glittering chandeliers. It feels more like an opera house than a seaside hall. Many visitors walk in from the grey promenade and simply stop, because the contrast is so strong.

Above the stage, look for a line painted in gold. It reads, "Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear." The words come from Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis. It is a lovely promise to place over a dance floor. For generations, couples have danced the waltz, the foxtrot, and the quickstep beneath it. In recent years, the ballroom has also become familiar to television audiences, because the BBC dance programme Strictly Come Dancing has held special broadcasts here.

The music in this room has its own story. Rising from beneath the stage is a Wurlitzer organ, a type of theatre organ that can imitate drums, bells, and whole orchestras. Its most famous player was Reginald Dixon. He played here for decades in the middle of the twentieth century, and his music was broadcast on the radio across Britain. People came to know him as "Mr Blackpool." For many listeners far from the coast, the sound of that organ was the sound of a holiday.

Now for a second surprise. Between the four legs of the tower, deep inside the building, there is a circus. The Tower Circus has entertained audiences since the earliest days of the building. Its ring is intimate, with seats rising steeply around it, so even the back rows feel close to the performers. And the ring has a famous trick of its own. At the end of the show, the floor can sink and fill with water, turning the circus into a pool for a splashing grand finale.

Of course, the reason the tower exists is the view. A lift carries visitors up to the observation level, known today as the Blackpool Tower Eye. From the top, the coastline opens out below you. You can follow the long line of the promenade and the piers reaching into the sea. On a clear day, the view stretches far across Lancashire, and you may see the hills of the Lake District on the horizon to the north.

At the top, there is a glass floor called the SkyWalk. You can stand on it and look straight down through the iron lattice to the street, far below. Many people hesitate at the edge. Some step on with confidence, and others edge forward with one foot. Watch the faces around you. It is one of the best places in the building to see how a simple pane of glass can test your nerves, even when you know it is perfectly safe.

Back down at street level, look at the building around the tower's base. Its red brick and terracotta details belong to the confident style of the late Victorian era. The tower and its buildings are now Grade I listed, the highest level of heritage protection in England. That status places this seaside entertainment palace in the same category as great cathedrals and country houses. It is a reminder that the pleasures of ordinary working people are also part of the nation's history.

If you visit in the autumn, you may see the tower in another light. Blackpool is famous for its Illuminations, a long display of lights along the seafront that has drawn crowds for generations. During the season, the tower becomes part of the show. Its lattice glows with colour against the night sky, and the promenade fills with people walking slowly, heads tilted upwards, just as you are now.

So take a moment before you move on. Feel the wind on your face and hear the trams rolling along the front. Look up once more at that iron frame, rising out of the bricks and the crowds. It was built to give working families a week of wonder, and it is still doing that job. As you walk away along the promenade, turn around every so often. You will find the tower is always there, watching over the town, like a familiar friend at the edge of the sea.