Douglas Tower
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Douglas Tower
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| Basic data | |||||
| Place: | Douglas | ||||
| Country: | Isle of Man | ||||
| Altitude : | 50 m ASL | ||||
| Coordinates: 54 ° 8 ′ 51.5 " N , 4 ° 28 ′ 34.9" W. | |||||
| Use: | Observation tower | ||||
| Demolition : | 1893 | ||||
| Tower data | |||||
| Construction time : | 1890-1893 | ||||
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| Total height : | planned height: 137 m | ||||
| Data on the transmission system | |||||
| Further data | |||||
| Status: | tore off | ||||
| Engineer: | T. Floyd | ||||
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The Douglas Tower is an unfinished tower construction project in the Isle of Man's capital, Douglas . The tower, designed by engineer T. Floyd, was to have a multi-story base house with an approximately square floor plan and be around 137 meters (450 feet ) high. The tower height was later reduced to 122 meters (400 feet). Due to dubious speculative investment projects, the construction company ran out of funds, so that the tower construction started in 1890 had to be completed in 1893.
history
prehistory
Inspired by the wave of tower construction triggered by the Eiffel Tower in Paris , the idea for building the tower in Douglas probably originally came from the managing director of the Standard Contract and Debenture Corporation , William Darker Pitt. The actual role of Pitt remains unclear, he is described in the literature partly as a promoter of a number of entertainment establishments on the coast, partly as a fraud who deliberately let the projects run into financial bankruptcy.
Planning for the tower
In the 1880s, the rocky Douglas Head peninsula began to develop near the main town of Douglas, which only became the capital of the Isle of Man in 1869. For the growing tourism they wanted to create recreational opportunities in Douglas Head. Access at that time was via steam boats or a cumbersome land route. In order to facilitate access, the intention was to open up the peninsula by means of a suspension bridge . Pitt recognized that there was an economic added value to be achieved here and wanted, similar to the Paris model, to build a lookout tower next to the bridge in the course of this development . In addition, a tower would have made the resort and bathing resort more famous. For purely economic considerations, Pitt considered that a tower only half the height of the Eiffel Tower would generate the same income and decided on a significantly smaller variant, which was initially projected to be around 137 meters. The oriental-style basic house with an almost square floor plan would have made up around 40% of the total height. Four structures crowned with small gilded domes were to rise up on the corners of the roof . A steel lattice tower with a viewing platform grew out of the middle of the base building , which was to be closed off by a lantern and an attached top. Architects Maxwell and Tuke noted that a tower twice as high would have required four times as much material. In addition to Pitts Standard Contract and Debenture Corporation (SCDC), the companies Douglas Head Marine Drive C. and Douglas Head Suspension Bridge Co. were commissioned to implement the project .
Start of construction and attempt to take over the Blackpool Tower
The foundation stone of the Douglas Tower was laid on October 24, 1890. The property on which the tower was built was adjacent to Parade Street and Queen's Place. The tower should stand near the bridge pillar of the planned suspension bridge on the left bank of the Douglas River.
At the same time, the builders of the SCDC were also working on taking on a corresponding tower construction project in Blackpool . The SCDC used a business address in London and masked their actual Isle of Man origin. The Blackpool Gazette , however, revealed this plot on November 28, 1890. In an investment prospectus published in the Financial Times on July 17, 1891, the SCDC disclosed further details of the financing. She gave the cost of the site at £ 94,000. All of the structures on it, along with the fittings, would cost around £ 120,000. The SCDC issued shares valued at £ 150,000 and issued bonds valued at £ 85,000. In addition to the tower, the entire property also included shops, a hotel, restaurants and an aquarium. The aquarium was expected to have 750,000 paying visitors a year, and the tower was estimated to have 500,000. The exact occurrences of the takeover attempt remain unclear. What is certain is that the hotelier and creator of the Blackpool Tower , John Bickerstaffe, bought the aquarium and the Beach Hotel from SCDC and thus successfully ousted investors from the Isle of Man. With the SCDC unable to maintain its bond guarantees, Bickerstaffe regained full control of the Blackpool Tower construction project.
Financial difficulties and construction freeze
Meanwhile, work on the Douglas Tower stagnated due to financial bottlenecks. During the founding of the Douglas Tower, the neighboring Royal Hotel was damaged in May 1891. As a result, the hotel owner ordered a temporary construction freeze and received compensation of 1,500 pounds from the Suspension Bridge Company . Only Douglas Head Marine Drive C made progress with the construction of around two thirds of the planned quayside roads by July 1891. In January 1892, however, the SCDC had to declare its liquidation, which was confirmed by the court on the Isle of Man in March 1892. This also caused financial difficulties for the other two companies involved, Douglas Head Marine Drive C. and Douglas Head Suspension Bridge Co. , which also transferred shares to SCDC. The shareholders of Douglas Head Marine had agreed to a capital increase in January 1892. After the Douglas Head Suspension Bridge also had to liquidate in April of the same year, the consortium collapsed and on January 31, 1893 reported a loss of 63,278 pounds. This marked the end of the Douglas tower, which did not get beyond the work on the foundations and the base.
Aftermath
In 1899, a 46-meter-high observation tower for the Warwick Tower Company was built on Douglas Head . The company, which built observation towers with rotating pulpits at many English seaside resorts at the turn of the century, built an observation tower on the Isle of Man in which up to 200 people could sit on the rotating pulpit, which, as a steam-powered elevator, took visitors to the top promoted. The London engineer Thomas Warwick owned a corresponding patent for the originally American invention. In August 1900, the surrounding structures of the tower were destroyed by fire. The tower survived the disaster. Then it was converted into a whirlpool with boats hanging on chains . After another fire in 1906, the tower was destroyed and demolished in March 1907.
Architectural-historical context
The Douglas Tower is part of a tower wave that began with the construction of the Eiffel Tower in the 1890s. In the United Kingdom, as the colonial power at the time , this structural competition was particularly pronounced. However, most of these attempts to outdo the Eiffel Tower, or at least to emulate it, fell short of the original or failed entirely. Other examples include the around 70 meter high pyramid-shaped tower in the seaside resort of Morecambe (1898) or Watkin's Tower in London and the New Brighton Tower that existed from 1900 to 1919 . Only the 158-meter-high Blackpool Tower in the English seaside resort of Blackpool, built from 1891 to 1894, remained as a successful example from this time.
literature
- Scientific American , Volume 28, Munn and Company, December 28, 1889, p. 16.
- The British Architect: A Journal of Architecture and the Accessory Arts, Volume 32, 1890, p. 374.
- Hazell's annual, Hazell, Watson & Viney ld, 1893, p. 369.
- Peter Walton: Blackpool Tower: A History , Amberley Publishing, 2016, ISBN 978-1-4456-4498-1 , pp. 39-51.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ The British Architect: A Journal of Architecture and the Accessory Arts, Volume 32, 1890, p. 374.
- ^ The New Hazell Annual and Almanack, Volume 6, 1891, p. 325
- ^ Walton: Blackpool Tower: A History , p. 39.
- ↑ History of Douglas Head , accessed on July 14, 2016
- ↑ Manx National Heritage: Douglas Head Suspension Bridge , accessed June 20, 2016
- ^ Walton: Blackpool Tower: A History , p. 41.
- ^ Walton: Blackpool Tower: A History , p. 42.
- ↑ Douglas, Isle of Man Historical City Map , accessed June 20, 2016
- ^ Walton: Blackpool Tower: A History , p. 43.
- ^ Walton: Blackpool Tower: A History , p. 47.
- ^ Walton: Blackpool Tower: A History , p. 46.
- ^ Walton: Blackpool Tower: A History , p. 45.
- ^ Walton: Blackpool Tower: A History , p. 49.
- ↑ A bit of english history, Warwicks Revolving Towers ( Memento from August 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 20, 2016 (engl.)
- ↑ Warwick Tower , accessed June 20, 2016
- ↑ The Tower Morecambe Selected photographs from the archives of Morecambe Bay, accessed May 25, 2016.