Watkin's Tower
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Watkin's Tower was a partially-completed building in London, England also known as "Watkin's Folly" or "the London Stump". It was marketed as the "Great Tower of London" in its day.
Shortly after the construction of the Eiffel Tower, Sir Edward Watkin, a British Member of Parliament and chairman of the Metropolitan Railway, proposed the construction of a tower in Wembley Park, London, that would be 46 metres (150 feet) taller. Watkin invited Gustave Eiffel himself to design the tower, but the Frenchman declined, replying that if he designed the tower, the French people "would not think me so good a Frenchman as I hope I am."
A competition was held, and numerous designs submitted. The winning entry was a metal tower on six legs, but it was soon modified to a four-legged design that looked very similar to the Eiffel Tower. A company was set up to build the tower and construction of the tower and the surrounding park began in 1891. When the park opened in 1894 the tower had reached a height of only 47 metres (155 feet), due to unstable foundations.
The story of Watkin's Folly is recounted briefly in the 1973 BBC documentary by Sir John Betjeman, Metro-land, which also shows some of the unsuccessful designs for the tower.
By the end of 1894 the money ran out and work stopped. The tower was never completed. The company turned to house building to recoup its losses and demolished the completed section of the tower in 1907.
The original Wembley Stadium was built for the 1923 British Empire Exhibition on the site of the tower, covering its foundations. The stadium was originally intended to be demolished at the end of the Exhibition, but it remained in use until 2000 and was finally torn down in 2003. The site now houses the new Wembley Stadium, a 90,000 all-seater stadium opened to the public in 2007. During rebuilding work, the lowering of the level of the pitch resulted in the concrete foundations of the tower being rediscovered on the stadium site.
Watkin's Folly was not the last attempt to build a notable British tower. A large lattice tower, though without observation deck, was built in 1950 as the Crystal Palace Transmitter. A further similar tower is Croydon Transmitter of 1955. In the North West of England, the Blackpool Tower (1894) and New Brighton Tower (1896) were also built, although only the Blackpool Tower remains standing.
[edit] References
- Information taken from London as it Might Have Been by Felix Barker and Ralph Hyde, 1982, ISBN 0-7195-3857-2
- ^ de Lisle, Tim. The height of ambition. "The Guardian", "G2" supplement, Tuesday March 14, 2006, pages 12–15.
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