Blackpool tower complex, ballroom, Promenade, Blackpool, Lancs, England, UK, FY1 4BJ

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 Paris, it is 518 feet (158 metres) tall and is the 125th-tallest freestanding tower in the world. Blackpool Tower is also the common name for the Tower Buildings, an entertainment complex in a red-brick three-storey block that comprises the tower, Tower Circus, the Tower Ballroom, and roof gardens, which was designated a Grade I listed building in 1973 The Blackpool Tower Company was founded by London-based Standard Contract & Debenture Corporation in 1890; it bought an aquarium on Central Promenade with the intention of building a replica Eiffel Tower on the site. John Bickerstaffe, a former mayor of Blackpool, was asked to become chairman of the new company Two Lancashire architects, James Maxwell and Charles Tuke, designed the tower. A new system of hydraulic riveting was used, based on the technology of Fielding & Platt of Gloucester. The total cost for the design and construction of the tower and buildings was about £290, 000. Five million Accrington bricks, 3, 478 long tons (3, 534 t) of steel and 352 long tons (358 t) of cast iron were used to construct the tower and base