Death, dereliction and destruction - The Curious Case of Jezreel's Tower.

This strange folly stood in Gillingham, Kent from 1885 until 1961. It was never completed and had already started to fall into dereliction when this misspelt  postcard was produced.

The building was the vision of self proclaimed prophet James Jershom Jezreel, the founder of  the Jezreelites sect.
He had grand plans for the tower which was to be their headquarters. These plans  included an amphitheatre to hold upto 5000 people, printing presses, castellated towers in a cube shaped building with a glass roof. Perhaps the most ambitious part of the project was the assembly room floor which would rise under hydraulic pressure on which a choir and preachers would rotate.  Along with gardens and stately avenues ,the estimated cost of the project was £25,000.
Jezreel did not live to see his vision realised. He died in March 1885, 6 months before the foundation stone was laid.
His unpopular widow carried on with the project,  alienating many of the followers along the way before she too died in 1888 at the age of 28. Her death put an end to any further building work.  
The Tower was sold in 1903 but only used by the few remaining Jezreelites for two years before demolition began.
However in  twist to the tale, the contractors employed to do this went bankrupt and demolition was only completed in 1961.
The strange building, fortunately for people like me, was a popular subject for postcards allowing people to marvel at the eccentricity of it all.

The Short and Tragic History of New Brighton Tower

I have to admit that when I was looking through my old cards recently, this one barely registered until I realised that New Brighton doesn't have a tower anymore.
I investigated and found an interesting and  rather tragic history.

It's not easy to tell from the postcard but when construction was completed in 1900 the tower, at 567, was the tallest building in Britain. It is said that from the top of the tower you could see the Isle of Man, The Lake District and the Welsh Monuntains.
The grounds of the tower were 20 acres and contained a boating lake, complete with gondolars ;  funfair and gardens. The tower itself contained a menagerie which included bears, leopards and the now extinct Barbary lion. (what I wouldn't do for a postcard of those.)
The contruction itself was beset with problems. 6 workers were killed in accidents and a fireman also met his death extingingusihing a fire which broke out during construction.
Sadly, the tower only enjoyed 14 years as a tourist destination as with the outbreak of WW1 it was closed for national security reasons and fell into disrepair. The dismantling started in 1919 and was completed in 1921 . The brick portion at the bottom which contained a theatre and ballroom remained until 1969 when another fire destroyed all but the shell. The site was eventually cleared and now contains a housing estate and football pitch. Plans to build a new tower in New Brighton have been rejected, perhaps knowing the history of the old one this is for the best.
The postcard itself is undated but is similar to others I have seen dated  1912. It was published by Valentines and is a devided back postcard.

Edits

This postcard isn't mine but it does show the size of the place rather well.

Also, I received a message on Facebook asking why I didn't mention the connection with Beatles. I agree that this was an oversight. The Beatles played at the Tower Ballroom a total of 27 times, second only to the Cavern club for UK venues. A Blue Plaque was erected in 2011 to honour this.