New Brighton, Egremont and Seacombe Promenade (1904)

Sedate promenades and visiting dignitaries on Edwardian Merseyside.

A promenade linking the popular seaside resorts of New Brighton and Seacombe was built in the 1890s. New Brighton Tower, glimpsed behind the bowling green, was built to rival Blackpool's Tower, and opened in 1900. At 567 feet it was the tallest building in the UK at the time, but was dismantled in 1919. An entrance fee of one shilling gave access to the tower and gardens, ballroom and theatre.

An advertisement in the Wallasey and Wirral Chronicle on 24 September 1904 modestly promoted "The Greatest Collection of Living Pictures The World Has Ever Produced, Including Living Wallasey From Day to Day. Incidents taken from Real Life. Arrival of Wallasey Ferry Boats. Come and see Yourself, Relations, and Friends coming and going to and from Liverpool." The same programme offered footage of the Royal Visit to Liverpool and the Russo-Japanese War. The genteel sport of bowls suggests a resort very different from that captured by photographer Martin Parr in his controversial book The Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton.