The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Blackpool

BLACKPOOL, England, town and county borough of North Lancashire on the west coast, between the estuaries of the Ribble and Wyre, 27 miles southwest of Lancaster, which attracts an annual average of 100,000 visitors by its advantages as a watering place. It affords excellent accommodation for visitors in the numerous hotels, hydropathic establishments and lodging-houses, and consists of ranges of lofty houses about three miles long facing the sea, in front of which extends an excellent promenade and carriage drive. The town is abundantly supplied with theatres, concert rooms, fine winter gardens, aquarium, extensive pleasure-grounds, park of 60 acres, a great steel tower over 500 feet high a gigantic wheel and other attractions. There are a courthouse and three markets, several churches, six council schools, eight non-provided schools and one for higher education, libraries and newsrooms. Blackpool was incorporated as a municipal borough on 21 Jan. 1876, and as a county borough 1 Oct. 1904. Resident population 58,500.