Detailed Information

The Tower Ballroom in the UK seaside town of Blackpool was designed by UK theatre architect Frank Matcham. The lavish ballroom, which includes a stage, opened at the start of the 1899 summer season and was in part a response to the lavish Empress Ballroom opened at the Blackpool Winter Gardens complex just up the street.

Matcham’s ballroom featured a sliding roof for ventilation, side galleries on two levels, plus a "grand circle" viewing area at one end of the ballroom reminiscent of a theatre balcony. The venue also featured a 3-manual, 14-rank Wurlitzer theatre organ (opus 2187) designed by renowned UK theatre organist Reginald Dixon.

The Tower Ballroom is now part of the Historic England Grade I listed Blackpool Tower complex. The ballroom is often featured in the BBC’s "Strictly Come Dancing" series, running since 2004.

Until recently, the Tower Ballroom has universally been quoted as "opening in 1899". Following much research, we’ve discovered that the Tower Ballroom opened on Saturday 20th May 1899, just in time for the Whitsuntide holiday which, at the time, signaled the start of the Summer season in the UK’s seaside towns. Whitsuntide, celebrated on the seventh Sunday after Easter and therefore a moveable holiday depending on the annual calendar, fell out of favour when the UK replaced it in 1972 with the Spring Bank Holiday, fixing the date for the holiday as the last Monday in May.