Alhambra Theatre (Palace), Promenade, Blackpool

Built on the site of the Prince of Wales Theatre which was demolished in 1897, The Alhambra opened two years later even before it was complete. Its first proper season was in 1900 and was something of a disaster. The Alhambra was built to the designs of Wylson and Long for £382,000 and had three enormous spaces in one building, a 2,000 seat circus, a 3,000 capacity ballroom and a 3,000 seat theatre, as well as restaurants and a winter garden. The north side of the building comprised three circus floors topped by the ballroom, and the theatre, with its three balcony levels took up the whole of the south side.

By 1902 the whole enterprise was bankrupt. The Blackpool Tower Company bought the Alhambra in July 1903, bringing in Frank Matcham to redesign the interior. It reopened as the Palace in July 1904 and featured one of the first moving staircases in the world. A cinema was incorporated in 1911 and in 1914 an underground passageway between Tower and Palace was built.