This remarkable shot of Blackpool Tower and the Winter Gardens was a speculative capture by an Aerofilms photographer and pilot as they navigated Englands north-west coastline in July 1920. Both the Blackpool Gazette and the Radio Times bought the image most likely to advertise the town and its increasingly famous attractions to prospective tourists. The Winter Gardens first opened in July 1878 as a six-acre pleasure park made up of concert halls, skating rinks and ballrooms. The year this photograph was taken also marked the first ever staging of the Blackpool Dance Festival in the wonderfully grand Empress Ballroom. Partly hidden in the background here is the Big Wheel, a 220-foot-high ride built by the Winter Gardens as direct competition for the Tower. It remained literally and metaphorically in the shadow of its more celebrated counterpart, and was eventually pulled down in June 1929. 1920. (Photo by US National Archives via “A History of Britain From Above”)
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