Andy Mitchell from Radio Wave

Happy 125th birthday then to our dear Blackpool Tower - our proud Grade I listed Landmark that separates us out from all the other seaside resorts in the UK.

Without doubt, I suggest that without the vision to build it back in the late 1800s, we may not have become the vibrant, famous destination that is the Nation’s favourite?

The key to success in Blackpool, as we know is in constantly creating something new for the crowds to marvel at. That’s never been an easy job either.

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I wonder what people in the town thought when Bickerstaffe and his men told the people of the town what they were going to build on the Promenade?

“He’s barmy!” is bound to have been one of the responses in The Saddle pub. “What does he think he’s doing?” “It’ll never work” etc etc

Those early photos taken in 1893 of the Tower half built are nothing short of magic. I bet people came from all over just to see how much had been built so far, making it an attraction before it was even opened.

The Big One roller coaster is 25 years old this month. I remember everyone marvelling at how it dwarfed everything else around it as the steelwork was constructed.

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I always remember that couple who arrived every day with their sandwiches and parked up near the Pleasure Beach to watch the massive pieces being winched into place. The Big One changed the Pleasure Beach and Blackpool. Suddenly everything was bigger and faster and more exciting.

In 2019 Blackpool is still a constantly evolving building site, creating new things for visitors to be amazed by... and that’s what we do best.

Rows over the colours of hotels, debates about tram links and conference centres,now all fought out, not in the pub but on Facebook, is what it’s all about.

Marketing, of course, is everything. I’m reminded of one of the Tower’s first clever bits of PR. By 1894, several landmark attractions were already established. One of them had taken out a rather large poster site in town to proclaim “Winter Gardens.. best show in town”, under which some genius attached the simple but crushing banner “Except the Tower”

Happy Birthday Blackpool Tower!

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