BRITISH SKYSCRAPER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21467, 15 April 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

BRITISH SKYSCRAPER

HOTEL AT BLACKPOOL The first skyscraper in Britain is to be built at Blackpool. It will be a hotel of 30 storeys, and is to be built on the south shore, near the bathing beach. The plans have been passed by the Blackpool Town Planning Committee, and building "will start shortly. It is expected that the hotel will be completed in two years. The hotel will cost £225,000, will be 511 ft. high, will weigh 40,000 tons, and will accommodate 2000. A post office, bank, shipping offices, and seven shops will be included in the building. There will be two ballrooms, each floor being large enough for 700 people, and there will be a theatre for 1700 people. Ihe restaurants will accommodate 3000 people. Other features will be a gymnasium and a sports room,, with mechanical physical culture apparatus. Steel will be used for everything in furnishing. Each bedroom will have a telephone and bathroom, and there will be a loud-speaker for radio in every room. A wing of the building will be used for Roman and Turkish baths. The front of the hotel will be of glass, illuminated by different coloured floodlights at night. There will be a nursery, with qualified attendants. Seven lifts will take guests the different floors of the building. Some of the lifts will run non-stop to the higher floors, while others serve the lower storeys. A tower 80ft. high will surmount the building. On top of this there will be a silver ball 37 ft. _in diameter, illuminated by a searchlight at night.