1905 colour postcard portrait Edwardian people walking Adelaide Street towards Blackpool Great Wheel and Tower, Blackpool, UK
The Blackpool 'Big Wheel', dating to 1896, was the second Ferris Wheel to be built in the UK, the Great Wheel at Earl's Court, London, part of the Empire of India Exhibition, being the first in 1895. Both were modelled after the Chicago Wheel, engineered by bridge-builder, George Washington Ferris in 1893. The Blackpool Wheel was built in the south-west corner of the Winter Gardens grounds. At a cost of £45,000, it weighed a total 1,100 tons, stood 65 m (220 feet) high and each of its 30 carriages could hold 40 people, adding an extra 100 tons to the wheel's weight. It was capable of 4 double revolutions per hour. Its solid steel axle was over 8m in diameter and the four columns holding it up were each over 34m high, standing on deep concrete piles. It was driven by two 12HP Robey steam engines. In February 1928 the Winter Gardens Company was taken over by the Tower Company and a decision was made to demolish the Great Wheel, its last trip being 20 October 1928 and all gone by June 1929. The Wheel had been losing money for years, possibly because of its location away from the seafront. The people in the shot wear Edwardian clothes and the 'Kubelik' advert on the wall of the Winter Gardens likely refers to the Czech violinist, Jan Kubelik, who gave a recital at the Winter Gardens, 27 August 1905. The photographer and publisher of the postcard is unknown.
Size: 1050px × 1692px
Location: Great Wheel and Tower, Adelaide Street, Blackpool, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1905, adelaide, antique, big, blackpool, colour, colourful, edwardian, edwardians, gardens, gigantic, great, kingdom, lancashire, people, portrait, postcard, road, seaside, street, tower, uk, united, urban, wheel, winter
