Blackpool, From Victoria Pier 1896

Photo ref: 38859

More about this scene

By the time the railway arrived in Blackpool in 1846, the town was already a resort attracting several thousand visitors a year. Baileys Hotel, later the Metropole, had opened in 1776. The first bathing-machines had been imported by an enterprising inn keeper as early as 1730, though whether or not they were available for hire on Sundays, as the two machines at Lytham were, so that the frail could be trundled to and from church, is unknown. One of the earliest attractions was Uncle Tom's Cabin, which started out as little more than a wooden hut from which Thomas Parkinson sold sweetmeats and ginger beer during the summer season. Parkinson appears to have gone under the name of 'Uncle Tom', hence the name of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Eventually Parkinson sold out to a man named Taylor. He went into partnership with another man in order to develop the business, but they did turn down the chance to buy the field the cabin stood in, and the one next to it, for just £15. Fate now plays its hand. Some time after Taylor had taken over, a wooden bust of a negro, thought to be a ship's figurehead, was washed ashore. By coincidence, one of the best-selling books of the time was 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', so Taylor simply stuck the figurehead on the roof, and added those of Eva and Topsy, implying that the cabin was in fact named after the hero of the book.