Blackpool's Golden Mile

The glittering Golden Mile is the stretch of promenade that runs between Blackpool's north and south piers, and has been famous as the home of British seaside culture for over a century. It began in the late 19th century, when small-time fairground operators, fortune-tellers, phrenologists and oyster bars set up shop outside the area's boarding houses, in order to take advantage of passing trade as people moved between their boarding house and the railway station.

The Golden Mile grew and evolved over the decades, to suit popular taste and pocket, until it became the tightly packed Mecca of entertainment it is today - labelled by The Gazette as "the brightest, most exciting stretch of outdoor attractions anywhere in the country".

Shoddy fortune tellers and kiss-me-quick hats have been replaced by professionally run amusement arcades and luxury night clubs - although the old-fashioned staples of candy floss, fish and chips, and slot machines are still very much in evidence, as are the world-famous Blackpool Illuminations, which light up the night with over a million bulbs from late August till early November, and include almost every kind of light you can imagine: lasers, neon, light bulbs, fibre optics, searchlights and floodlighting. This electrifying experience has been a well-established Blackpool tradition since 1879, and thousands of people gather to celebrate the Big Switch On, as the summer season draws to a close.

The perfect starting point for your holiday in Blackpool, the Golden Mile also encompasses many of the town's most famous and popular tourist attractions, such as Louis Tussaud's Waxworks - five floors of fame-filled fun for all the family, where visitors can hob-nob with stars of the screen and stage, as well as sporting heroes, kings and queens, world leaders, and even the world's most famous monsters from fact and fiction.

There is also the Blackpool Sea Life Centre, which houses Europe's most comprehensive collection of tropical sharks, along with over 1,000 other weird and wonderful sea creatures in more than 50 different displays, many of the featuring walk-through tunnels for the unnerving experience of being surrounded by water - and sharks - on all sides! Fans of the weird and wonderful will also find plenty to entertain them at the renowned Ripley's Believe It Or Not which features oddities from all over the world, including a two-headed calf, a 14 foot swamp alligator, and a fertility statue which is claimed to be responsible for over 1,000 pregnancies to date!

And of course, the crowning glory of the Golden Mile is its unparalleled views out over the famous golden sands of Blackpool's beach, and the refreshing breezes rolling in from the Irish Sea. Famous throughout Britain and the world for its enduring holiday spirit, a source of pride for locals and affection for generations of holidaymakers, Blackpool's seafront has become the epitome of innocent and fun-loving nostalgia, and remains the heart and soul of this most British of resorts.

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