The Alhambra was an entertainment complex in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

, Lancashire, England, from 1899 to 1903. A financial disaster, the building was bought by the Blackpool Tower Company and reopened in 1904 as the Palace. The building was demolished in 1961 to make way for

Lewis's Lewis's is an online retailer and homeware brand. It was also a chain of British department stores that operated from 1856 to 2010. The owners of Lewis's went into administration several times, including in 1991. The first store, which ope ...

department store.

Construction

The land on which the Alhambra was built was originally the site of the Prince of Wales Theatre and Baths, which had opened in 1877. The Alhambra (Blackpool) Limited company was formed, with support from local publican and former acrobat Henry Brooks. £220,000 was authorised for the build and shares in the company were offered to the general public in 1897. They sold out immediately; 3/5 of the shareholders came from Lancashire, and 1/8 from Blackpool. Against competition from

Frank Matcham Francis Matcham (22 November 1854 – 17 May 1920)Mackintosh, Iain"Matcham, Frank" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 7 July 2019 was an English architect who specialised in the design of theatres and ...

and C. J. Phipps, architects Wylson & Long of London won the design contract. The foundation stone was laid on 18 December 1897 and the building work, undertaken by Whitehead & Son of Blackpool, took two years to complete.

Architecture and features

Externally, the Alhambra's facade was designed in the French

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style, with decorations in

Burmantofts Burmantofts is an area of 1960s high-rise housing blocks in inner-city east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England adjacent to the city centre and St. James's Hospital. It is a racially diverse area, with sizable Afro-Caribbean and Irish communities, b ...

terracotta. It was a four-storey building with twin conical domes on the roof. The completed building contained three large spaces; a 3,000-seat theatre, a 3,000-capacity ballroom and a 2,000-seat circus, as well as a

winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Dif ...

roof garden A roof garden is a garden on the roof of a building. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for wildlife, recreational oppo ...

and restaurants. These were very similar to the facilities provided by the

Blackpool Tower Blackpool Tower is a tourist attraction in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which was opened to the public on 14 May 1894. When it opened, Blackpool Tower was the tallest man-made structure in the British Empire. Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in P ...

buildings. The three-tiered circus took up one side of the building and the ballroom occupied the floor above it. The four-tiered theatre was on the other side of the building. Between the circus and the theatre was a large central entrance hall with staircases leading to restaurants.

Early years

The Alhambra was opened in the middle of the 1899 season, before its construction was complete. It was immediately a financial disaster. Although it was popular with visitors, the company was unable to recoup the costs of the land and construction (£382,000), and the artistes employed. In 1900, its first full season, approximately £50,000 of share capital was written off and the Alhambra closed two years later. According to John K. Walton, the problems were due to financial mismanagement. It was the first development in Blackpool to face such financial failure.

Palace

The Blackpool Tower Company took over the Alhambra in 1904 and employed

to redesign the interior. It was reopened as the Palace in 1904 and was far more successful than its predecessor. The new building had one of the first moving staircases in the world. A cinema was added in 1911 and in 1914, an underground passage was built that connected the Palace to the Tower buildings. The Palace was demolished in 1961 to make way for

department store, which was later replaced by Woolworths.

Legacy

The building may have been demolished in 1961, but its name lives on by means of the

Palace Shield The Palace Shield, officially known as the MHA Palace Shield for sponsorship reasons, is a cricket competition based in Preston and surrounding districts in Lancashire, England. There are eight divisions in the main Saturday competition, three ...

, a league competition for cricket teams in the

, Preston, and surrounding districts of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. This competition, initially the Alhambra Shield was founded in 1902, becoming the Palace Shield from 1907, with the championship shield and medals being provided by the owners of the Alhambra complex.Lancashire Daily Post 24 April 1907 (British Newspaper Archive)

References

;Bibliography * * * {{Blackpool buildings Theatres in Blackpool Buildings and structures demolished in 1961 Former theatres in England