Blackpool Pleasure Beach
A 1904 flying machine, Europe's biggest drop in 1994, and a 1923 wooden coaster still going: Blackpool's South Shore park started life on a patch of sand dunes.
Published
Quick Facts
- Location
- South Shore, Blackpool, Lancashire coast
- Opened
- 1896
- Founders
- William George Bean and John Outhwaite
- Oldest big coaster
- The Big Dipper, 1923
- UK first
- Revolution (1979), the UK's first modern looping steel coaster
- Height record
- The Big One (1994), 213 ft tall, the tallest roller coaster in the world when it opened
- Architecture
- Joseph Emberton's Art Deco Casino Building, 1939
- Family business
- Run by the Bean and Thompson family across more than a century
From sand dunes to the seaside's biggest show
Before the Big One, before the Big Dipper, there was sand. In 1896 William George Bean and John Outhwaite began laying out amusements on dunes at the southern end of Blackpool, away from the crowds around the Tower and the Golden Mile. It was a small start, but Blackpool had millions of mill-town holidaymakers arriving by train every summer and a hunger for novelty. The pair gave them rides, and the site kept growing for the next hundred-plus years. Bean's family stayed at the helm. After Bean's death in 1929, his daughter Doris inherited the park. Her husband Leonard Thompson led it until his death in 1976, after which Doris served as chairman and their son Geoffrey as managing director, both until 2004. Few major British attractions have stayed in one family's hands for so long.
The day Blackpool let people fly
One of the park's oddest early attractions arrived in 1904: the Captive Flying Machine, the work of Hiram Maxim, the American-born inventor best known for the Maxim machine gun. It was a giant rotating ride with gondolas swung out on long arms, and it let ordinary holidaymakers feel something close to flight years before most of them would ever see an aeroplane. That set the tone. The Pleasure Beach became a place where fairground engineering and showmanship met, and the park kept adding the newest thrill machine it could find.
A wooden coaster that outlived its rivals
The Big Dipper opened in 1923 and is still thrilling riders more than a century later. It is a classic wooden coaster: a long, rattling, creaking ride with plenty of airtime and a view over the Irish Sea from the lift hill. The Grand National, opened in 1935, is another from the golden age. It is a racing coaster named after the famous Aintree steeplechase, with trains running side by side. Riding either one is a trip back through the history of the roller coaster. Look out for the wooden structure and the old-fashioned feel of the stations.
Why Blackpool's biggest coaster was a very big deal
In 1979 the park opened Revolution, the UK's first modern steel looping coaster. A ride that turned you fully upside down, built from tubular steel, was a novelty, and it changed what British coaster fans expected. Then came 1994 and the Big One, which stood 213 ft tall and was the tallest roller coaster in the world when it opened. Its first drop is the moment most people remember. The ride is visible from miles along the Fylde coast, and for many visitors it is the first sign they have reached Blackpool. The park kept that appetite for big engineering. Valhalla, a Viking-themed water ride, arrived in 2000. Icon, a launch coaster, opened in 2018.
The Art Deco jewel hiding among the rides
The Pleasure Beach is not only about the rides. In 1939 architect Joseph Emberton designed the Casino Building, a sweeping Art Deco design with a streamlined, ocean-liner look. It is a notable example of seaside modernism in Britain. Emberton also left his mark elsewhere on the park, and it is worth looking up from the queue lines to take in the cream-coloured curves and bold lettering. It is a reminder that the park's founders always wanted glamour as well as thrills. When you go, walk the whole site. The old wooden coasters, the 1930s architecture and the modern steel giants sit within a few hundred yards of each other, which is a rare mix for a UK theme park.
Notable people
- William George Bean
- John Outhwaite
- Leonard Thompson
- Doris Thompson
- Geoffrey Thompson
- Joseph Emberton
- Hiram Maxim
- Charlie Paige