Watkin's Tower

Watkin’s Tower stood in Wembley Park, a stretch of open ground north-west of London. The railway entrepreneur Sir Edward Watkin bought the land to create a pleasure park served by his Metropolitan Railway. He planned boating lakes, gardens, cricket pitches and a giant metal tower taller than the Eiffel Tower. The park opened in 1894 while the tower was still being built, and in its first full year drew twelve thousand visitors. The tower’s first stage reached forty-seven metres before work stopped. The tower was designed to have two observation decks with restaurants, theatres and winter gardens. Gustave Eiffel declined to design it, so an 1890 competition produced sixty-eight entries. The winning plan by Stewart, MacLaren and Dunn proposed an eight-legged iron tower with lifts, Turkish baths and a hotel. Watkin appointed Benjamin Baker, the Forth Bridge engineer, to oversee construction, but funds ran low and the design was cut to four legs. After Watkin’s death in 1901 the unfinished tower was judged unsafe and closed. Between 1904 and 1907 the completed section was demolished with explosives. The site later became the British Empire Exhibition Stadium, rebuilt as Wembley Stadium. The surrounding park still offers sports pitches and a lake, a quiet echo of Watkin’s grand vision.