IT once towered over Douglas, offering Victorian trippers unrivalled views over the bay.
Now part of a 19th century tourist attraction known as the Warwick Revolving Tower has been revealed for the first time in more than a century, during building works at Manx Radio’s headquarters on Douglas Head.
Contractors doing the grounds works for a new exterior staircase at Broadcasting House unearthed the remains of the short-lived structure which was badly damaged in a fire after just two seasons and demolished completely following a second fire in 1906.
Local historian Peter Kelly said the tower was erected by engineer Thomas Warwick under licence, and was one of a number built in seaside resorts including Great Yarmouth, Scarborough, Morecambe and Cleethorpes.
The design had been patented in the States with a Methodist Minister in Atlantic City having come up with the original idea.
Plans for the Douglas Head attraction were approved by Douglas Corporation in 1898 and the tower was built in time for the 1899 season.
Sightseers would take a seat on a circular platform, which was pulled 150 feet up the lattice steelwork tower by a steam-powered pulley system. Once at the top, the platform would revolve, powered by an electric motor. The revolving tower proved popular but it didn’t last long. On August 22, 1900 it burned down in a catastrophic fire.
Peter said: ‘Its demise was through carelessness. At the bottom of the tower was a pit for the pulled system. There was an accumulation of oily rags and a careless cigarette caused it to go up in flames. That was the end of it as a Warwick Revolving Tower.’
It’s thought that the tower, albeit much reduced in height, survived for another few years in another format, possibly as a ‘whirlygig’ with boats suspended on long chains, although Peter says he has seen no records of this.
However, another fire in 1906 finally killed it off and it was demolished the following year.
Peter visited the remains unearthed by the contractors before they disappeared for good under tonnes of cement. He said they appeared to be the circular wall of the pulley system pit, the seat of the disastrous fire that cut short the tower in its prime.