Pharos Lighthouse

The Pharos Lighthouse stands in Fleetwood, Lancashire, on a residential street called Pharos Street. It is a 28-metre-tall lighthouse built from Runcorn red sandstone. Designed in 1839 by Decimus Burton and Captain H.M. Denham, it was completed in 1840. Burton had been hired three years earlier by Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood to design the new town. The name ‘Pharos’ comes from the ancient Pharos of Alexandria.

The lighthouse works with a shorter Lower Lighthouse on the sea front. Together they guide ships through the Wyre estuary’s dangerous sandbanks. The Pharos light must sit directly above the Lower Lighthouse’s beam for safe passage. Both lights first shone on 1 December 1840, powered by the town’s gas supply. Later they switched to electricity, and the lamp now sits 32 metres above sea level with a range of 22 kilometres.

The lighthouse was once painted cream and red but now shows its original sandstone. The Blackpool tramway’s Fleetwood loop passes its base. Managed by the Port of Fleetwood, the interior remains closed to visitors.