Cunningham's Camp Escalator

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Cunningham's Camp Escalator is a moving chairlift which last operated in either 1968 or 1969 depending on sources. It served the huge holiday camp on Victoria Road in Douglas on the Isle of Man and ran from a point some distance from the promenade to the camp itself. Remarkably, although the system and the camp it served have long since vanished, it remains in situ, largely in tact but has not been operational since the camp closed. It is arrived at by climbing Little Switzerland Road (site of today's Edelwiess Hotel) where a large red brick and stone archway can be found mid way up the road. The entrance was bricked over in the 1990s owing to the site being the target of vandalism, but the structure remains in place. Behind the facade remain the turnstiles and toilets with ceramic tiles and copper pipework before reaching the approach steps to the chairlift itself. The facsinating design is split into two parts, an "up" and "down" section, and each has its own set of moving wooden seats accompanied by steps for the more energetic. The system is accessable but in recent years the rate of decay has increased and it is now largely unsafe.