New Brighton Tower
|
New Brighton Tower
|
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||||
| Basic data | |||||||
| Place: | Wallasey | ||||||
| Metropolitan Borough: | Weird | ||||||
| Region: | England | ||||||
| Country: | United Kingdom | ||||||
| Altitude : | 21 m ASL | ||||||
| Coordinates: 53 ° 26 ′ 13.9 ″ N , 3 ° 2 ′ 13 ″ W. | |||||||
| Use: | Observation tower | ||||||
| Demolition : | 1969 | ||||||
| Tower data | |||||||
| Construction time : | 1897-1900 | ||||||
|
|||||||
| Total height : | 172.8 m | ||||||
| Data on the transmission system | |||||||
| Further data | |||||||
| Status: | tore off | ||||||
| Dismantling technology: | 1919-1921 | ||||||
| Opening: | circa 1900 | ||||||
| Position map | |||||||
|
|||||||
The New Brighton Tower was a 172.8 meter high observation tower designed as a steel framework construction . It was built in 1900 in the New Brighton district of the English city of Wallasey , west of Liverpool on the opposite side of the River Mersey . At the time of its completion, the tower was the tallest structure in the UK and attracted over half a million visitors a year. At the base of the tower there was an extensive park and a wide range of leisure activities. The ballroom in the base house was the largest in the UK. As a result of neglect, the tower was demolished in the early 1920s. In 1969 the brick building at the base caught fire and had to be demolished afterwards as well.
history
In the course of the construction of the Eiffel Tower in the United Kingdom, a number of proposals for similar tower projects were made. The only one still preserved today is the Blackpool Tower , on which the New Brighton Tower is conceptually and architecturally oriented. As with its model, which opened in the seaside resort of Blackpool in 1894 , the tower in New Brighton grew up from a base house. After the construction company to The New Brighton Tower and Recreation Company Limited with a starting capital of 300,000 pounds sterling formed and a 80,000 square meter plot of land acquired at Rock Point, began on 22 June 1896, the construction of the base building. The tower itself was built from 1897. Six workers died during construction. As with the Blackpool Tower, architects were James Maxwell and Charles Tuke from Manchester .
It was completed in 1900, the exact date is unknown. Other sources even mention 1898 as the opening year. Shortly after the opening, a young man committed suicide. When the First World War broke out , the tower was closed to the public and used for military purposes. The building fabric was becoming increasingly neglected due to a lack of maintenance by the owners, who saw themselves overwhelmed with the financial maintenance. Due to the increasing dilapidation, the tower began to be demolished on May 7, 1919. In June 1921, the demolition work was completed.
What was left was the base house, which served as an air raid shelter for the population during the Second World War . On April 5, 1969, arson by children resulted in the destruction of the base building, leaving only the outer shell. This was finally demolished and new housing developments were built in the area in the 1970s. The remaining area was used as a park ( River View Park ) and soccer field.
description
As with its model in Blackpool, the New Brighton Tower was integrated into a base house below the tower structure with eight tower feet. In the generously designed house in neo-Gothic style there was, among other things, a ballroom. This was one of the largest in the world. The orchestra had sixty members and the dance floor offered space for over 1,000 couples. Above the ballroom, which was decorated in white and gold, there was a monkey house, an aviary and the elevator hall. A total of four lifts were able to transport visitors to the viewing platform of the six- story tower cage with an octagonal floor plan . The steel structure of the tower weighed over 1000 tons and there was a flagpole at the top . Of the four originally planned elevators, only two were implemented, which had been installed by Eastin, Anderson and Goolden Ltd from Erith.
At the foot of the tower there were a number of attractions and amusement facilities, such as a sports stadium with a capacity of 80,000 people and a sports field ( Tower Athletic Grounds ), a theater with around 3,500 spectators, a Wild West show and one extensive park of over 100,000 square meters. Due to the vastness of the area, there was even a separate police force of 15 men.
use
Until it was demolished, the ballroom also served as a venue for many concerts. The best-known performers there included Little Richard and The Beatles . The symphony orchestra in the Park am Turm ( New Brighton Tower Pleasure Gardens ) was also culturally noted. Between 1897 and 1900, the composer Granville Bantock was the orchestra's musical director.
Others
In order to increase the attractiveness of the area during the winter months, a football team, the New Brighton Tower FC , was founded in October 1896 . Between 1898 and 1901 this played in the second football league in England , after missing the first division promotion three times, the club was dissolved again in 1901. In continuation of this tradition, the AFC New Brighton had the tower in the club logo.
literature
- Bill Curtis: Blackpool Tower , Terence Dalton 1988, ISBN 978-0-86138-064-0 , pages 34-35.
Web links
- New Brighton Tower. In: Structurae
- The Tower Grounds (English)
- oldwirral.com: The New Brighton Tower (English)
- Liverpool Mercury: Eiffel Tower For New Brighton , reproduction of a historic newspaper report from February 10, 1896 about the tower construction
- Aerial views of the New Brighton Tower (1920)
Individual evidence
- ^ Minutes of proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers . In: The Institution . tape 202 , no. 2 , 1917, p. 437 .
- ^ Bill Curtis: Blackpool Tower , Terence Dalton 1988, ISBN 978-0-86138-064-0 , page 131
- ↑ The Tower Grounds ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ oldwirral.com: The New Brighton Tower
- ^ Bill Curtis: Blackpool Tower , Terence Dalton 1988, ISBN 978-0-86138-064-0 , page 35
- ↑ Liverpool Echo: Little Richard's the only big-name draw , article by Raphael Callaghan (April 29, 2005), accessed January 31, 2012
- ^ Concert poster for The Beatles in the New Brighton Tower, 1963
- ↑ Live and Work of Granville Bantock ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Website of the AFC New Brighton ( Memento of the original from February 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
