Dancing in the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool

Blackpool Tower, inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, opened to the public on 14 May 1894. In its long history it has had several owners, but is currently owned by Blackpool Council, and managed by Merlin Entertainment Group. The 518ft. 9” high tower is not free-standing, its base being hidden by the building which houses Blackpool Tower Circus, located between the tower’s four legs.
On a level above the Circus is the beautiful ballroom, the so-called home of British ballroom dancing, with its ‘floating’ floor and ornately painted and decorated ceiling. The original ballroom, the ‘Tower Pavilion’, opened in August 1894 and was smaller than the present ballroom which was built between 1897 and 1898 and opened in 1899 in opposition to the Empress Ballroom in the Winter Gardens. The ballroom floor is made up of 30,602 blocks of mahogany, oak, and walnut, and the inscription above the stage states ‘Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear’, a quotation from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare. The chandeliers can all be lowered for cleaning, a painstaking and time-consuming process. One of the jewels of the Tower Ballroom is the Wurlitzer organ, installed in 1929, which rises majestically onto the stage from the cellar below, complete with stool and organist in situ, probably playing ‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!’… In my picture however, the organ being played is a Wersi. In season, both organs are played daily, taking it in turns to play out the strict tempo required for proper ballroom dancing.