Blackpool Map

Blackpool is an English coastal town on the Irish Sea. Traditionally Blackpool was part of the county of Lancashire, but became independent independent authority on 1 April 1998 (Unitary Authority).

Blackpool has three piers, the northern one was built in 1863, the middle 1868 and the southern 1893. The Blackpool Tower was erected in May 1894 and represents a 158-meter-high copy of the Eiffelturms. The outer skin was gold-colored after the building 100- Year anniversary.

Blackpool Map

There are (museum) trams along the beach promenade, which - after abolition of the regular trams in the 1950s and 1960s - were the only ones on the British Isles for a long time. Since the end of the 20th century however, the streetcar networks have been expanded again in many British cities. Until today, the two-storey streetcar in Blackpool is still unique in Europe, but only a few days a year.

Blackpool is known as the headquarters of the sport car manufacturer TVR and as a production facility of the company Jaguar. It is also home to a football team, the FC Blackpool. The club succeeded after 39 years in the year 2010 to climb up again into the top league of the country.

From the 19th century, the town was a special holiday destination for the working class of the North-German working class. With the discount in the tourism industry in the 1960s, the Mediterranean region became the most popular holiday destination. The leisure park Blackpool Pleasure Beach is one of the largest in Europe.

Outside of the holiday season major political conferences and meetings are held at Blackpool's Winter Gardens. In particular, the Labor Party of Great Britain usually has its party convention here.

A major sporting event is the annual Blackpool Dance Festival at the impressive Empress Ballroom in the Wintergardens, the most important and largest dance sport festival in the world.

Blackpool is one of the birthplaces of modern mass tourism. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the village was first a seaside resort for the prosperous population of northern Germany. However, the proximity to the textile towns of the nearby Lancashire caused an early orientation towards broader visitor stories. Even before the railroad reached Blackpool in 1840, there were organized excursions of workers' savings clubs to Blackpool, whose participants were nicknamed "Padjammer" after the city of Padiham. These excursion guests were accommodated in catastrophic mass accommodation. However, Blackpool remained the "Nobelpublikum" until well into the 19th century - the first pier (erected in 1863, today the Nordpier) aimed at this more cashier crowd, while the second (now the middle) pier opened in 1868 soon became a dance platform for the textile workers Should serve. 

In 1842, a group of Sunday school teachers spoke at the P & W railway line, which was then in difficulties, because of a 50% special discount for the Sunday excursion of their association to Blackpool. This trip of 3 July 1842 became one of the first examples of modern organized mass tourism Company trip. Such Sunday trips at half the price have quickly become a success story for British railway companies. Through the creation of the four so-called Bank Holidays, 1870-80 witnessed a huge swelling of Blackpool's visitor streams and the corresponding entertainment establishments, such as the dance palace Raikes Hall, opened in 1872, which was also famous for its patriotic fireworks. In September 1879 Blackpool stepped up as a pioneer of electric lighting for the sake of saving a seasonally diminished tourism season - the autumn illumination has since become a hallmark of the seaside resort. Other tourist attractions were the Blackpool Tower (1894) and the Giant Ferris Wheel, which existed until 1928. 

In the 20th century many of these attractions had been replaced by modern rides and roller coasters (such as Big Dipper and The Big One). Tourism in Blackpool suffered heavily from the advent of low-cost airlines and competition from theme parks. At the end of the twentieth century, the city was often associated with a cheap, cheesy place for wild bachelor parties in the British population. Nevertheless, Blackpool remains a tourism-centric city, and the city administration invests millions in attractions, transport links and advertising to reinvent Blackpool. Since 2011, there is the tenth branch of Madame Tussaud's wax figurine cabinet.