Cabin Lift, Blackpool

The Cabin Lift in Blackpool is a striking relic of seaside ingenuity, perched between the upper tramway and the lower promenade near Blackpool Casino and The Doric Hotel. Built in 1930, this shoreline lift tower was the brainchild of John Charles Robinson, the Blackpool Borough Surveyor, and it remains one of the town's more distinctive architectural landmarks.

Constructed in the Classical Revival style, the Cabin Lift is made of red brick with gleaming faience detailing and topped with a copper roof. It was originally designed to offer passengers a convenient vertical shortcut between three levels: the tram station above, the promenade below, and an area once home to the now-defunct boating pool. While the boating pool is long gone-having morphed from a waterside leisure spot to a rubble storage site and eventually into a karting track-the lift tower remains, holding its ground like a stoic sentinel of interwar modernity.

Designated a Grade II listed building in 2010, the Cabin Lift is recognized for its rarity as a surviving example of early 20th-century seaside infrastructure. It’s also celebrated for its bold design, high-quality materials, and architectural flair, particularly admired from the vantage point of the lower promenade, where the structure looms with an almost theatrical presence.

Though the lift was briefly revived in the 1990s-complete with lift operators and a modest fare-it couldn’t quite cover costs and eventually went out of service again. Still, the tower stands proud, a remnant of Blackpool's heyday as a trailblazing holiday resort, and a testament to the town’s knack for combining function with flair.