Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

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Iconic Blackpool Tower Ballroom undergoes its annual spring clean

Since opening 118 years ago, the iconic Blackpool Tower Ballroom has been home to every type of dance step and sees millions of toe-tapping feet grace its floor each year. Therefore, each year it undergoes a necessary cleaning, maintenance and TLC programme, to ensure it continues to look its absolute best.

The whole process starts off at floor level, with all 120ft of the wooden floors, made out of 30,602 blocks of mahogany, oak and walnut, being stripped back, sanded down, varnished and then polished to perfection to ensure any dance can be performed in style.

After the floors are taken care of, it is time for the 14 chandeliers to be gently and carefully taken down and individually dusted, cleaned and bulbs replaced. Each chandelier has over 80 bulbs, so ensuring they are in full working order is no mean feat.

"As you can see it is quite a large job, with over a century of history to be cleaned and polished," admits The Blackpool Tower General Manager, Kate Shane. "But it's well worth it to see the end result, a breathtaking ballroom just as it was over 100 years ago.

"With hundreds of bulbs to be checked, replaced or dusted, it's all hands on deck to ensure it is done swiftly and to the highest standard.

"The whole process takes two weeks and has to be done with the upmost care to ensure the whole Ballroom looks just as good as it did when it opened back in 1899.

"The annual spring clean happens each year, apart from 1957 when the Ballroom had been devastated by fire."

The Ballroom sits inside the Blackpool Tower and is open each day to the public to come and show off their dance moves to the music of the famous Wurlitzer.

26th January 2012