Blackpool Promenade (known colloquially as the Prom) is a road and

esplanade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...

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. It runs for around , from Queen's Promenade, at Gynn Square, in the north to a junction with Squires Gate Lane and Clifton Drive North in the south. The promenade replaced a small parade which existed in the 1780s. That seafront road was subject to erosion, leading to a realigned replacement being constructed in the 1820s. Blackpool's three piers―

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

, Central and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

―have entrances from the esplanade, while 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 ...

overlooks the promenade and esplanade from the inland side, near Central Pier. A stretch of the promenade, between North Pier and South Pier, is called the " Golden Mile". A "comedy carpet" was installed in the esplanade, opposite Blackpool Tower, in 2011. It was designed by Gordon Young. The town's annual Illuminations, established in 1879, run the entire length of the esplanade and promenade, plus an additional to the north, beyond Gynn Square to Red Bank Road on Bispham's Queen's Promenade.

History

When the promenade first opened, it was wide and long. By 1901, it was wide and long. In 1911, the promenade was widened between North Pier and the Claremont Esplanade. In front of the Grand Metropole Hotel, it was widened to . On 2 October 1926, a "new promenade" was opened by

Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby Edward George Villiers Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby (4 April 1865 – 4 February 1948), styled The Hon. Edward Stanley from 1886–93 and Lord Stanley from 1893 to 1908, was a British peer, soldier, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politic ...

. It was an extension of the work done in 1905. The work included the section between South Pier (then known as Victoria Pier) and the land "adjoining the Borough of

Lytham Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population of the built-up area at the 2021 United Kingdom census, ...

" further south. The Earl also opened

Stanley Park Stanley Park is a public park in British Columbia, Canada, that makes up the northwestern half of Vancouver's Downtown Vancouver, Downtown peninsula, surrounded by waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay, Vancouver, English Bay. The park bor ...

the same day. A central section of the promenade was redeveloped between May 2010 and November 2011, at a cost of around £100 million.

Gallery

File:Comedy-Carpet-06.JPG, The "comedy carpet", looking south in 2013

References

External links

* {{Blackpool Attractions Roads in Lancashire Transport in Blackpool 19th-century establishments in England