Belle Vue: Manchester's pleasure ground lasted 144 years, then the land was worth more

Belle Vue opened in June 1836 as zoological gardens, and by the twentieth century had grown into 165 acres of zoo, amusement park, ballrooms, speedway and greyhound stadium in Manchester — drawing more than 2 million visitors a year at its peak, with up to 250,000 crammed in over the Easter weekend.

John Henry Iles took over in 1925 and turned the gardens into a mass-market pleasure ground: the Bobs roller coaster hit 60 mph, and the park added the Scenic Railway, the Ghost Train and the Jetstream. But by the 1970s decades of underinvestment showed, and the zoo — the original draw — was losing around £100,000 a year.

The zoo closed on 11 September 1977, its collection sold off; the amusement park limped on with summer-weekend openings until 26 October 1980. A final Christmas circus played into early 1982, then demolition began. The land was sold off through the decade, and by 1987 Manchester's playground was gone.