Before 1990, the Blackpool Tower Circus featured elephants as a prominent part of its shows and was famous for exercising the animals with morning walks along the beach and promenade. For decades, it was a regular sight for visitors and locals to see the elephants going down to the water to bathe. The first elephants were used in the Tower Circus in 1895, a year after the circus had opened. The animals were trained by a man named Julius Wagner and were a popular attraction. The circus continued to feature wild animal acts, including elephants, until 1990, when the use of live animals in performances was discontinued due to changing public attitudes toward animal welfare. Because of Blackpool Tower’s listed building status, the stables and pens that once housed the elephants and other animals still exist deep beneath the circus ring.
1967 – Back on her feet after the largest operation in the world five-year-old Frances, an elephant at the Blackpool Tower Circus, is back on her feet again after undergoing a four hour operation for a strangulated hernia. Each day she is restricted to 36 pints of milk, 40 loaves, 48 bananas and 151 lbs. of carrots. The operation was performed single handed by a local veterinary surgeon who had to administer enough anaesthetic for 50 people. Photo Shows: Frances tucking into her light invalid diet © Keystone Pictures USA/ZUMAPRESS.com/Alamy Live News
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