The Season

From the 1870s the island sold itself to industrial Lancashire and Yorkshire as a holiday, and for a century that was the economy. Steam Packet paddle steamers into Douglas, boarding houses along the promenade, the Gaiety Theatre, the Villa Marina, Derby Castle, wakes weeks, deckchairs and the camera obscura. Then the collapse when cheap flights to Spain arrived, and what the island became instead. The Summerland fire of 2 August 1973, in which fifty people died at the Douglas leisure complex, belongs to this segment and is handled soberly.

Part of Isle of Man

87 moments in this segment.

  1. - Isle of Man Steam Packet Company packet steamer, Fenella. The Steam Packet's iron twin-screw steamer SS Fenella, No. 76303, built 1881. The company's Victorian fleet was built for a passenger trade that ran to hundreds of thousands of arrivals a season.
  2. - John Miller Nicholson (1840-1913) - A Summer Afternoon, Douglas Promenade - 1954-2501-050 - Manx Museum. 'A Summer Afternoon, Douglas Promenade' by John Miller Nicholson (1840 to 1913), painted in 1888. Nicholson is the island's principal Victorian painter and recorded Douglas at the height of its resort trade.
  3. - Douglas Head, Isle of Man. 781 (NBY 419249). An Oilette postcard of Douglas Head and the harbour, published around 1905. The postcard trade is itself evidence of the resort boom: the island was being sold as an image to a mass market that arrived by steamer.
  4. - 1970: MANX ALIVE! Life on the Isle of Man | Man Alive | Voice of the People | BBC Archive. The BBC's 'Man Alive' filmed island life in 1970. The island's population at the 2021 census was 84,069, of whom just under half were born on the island and 38.2 per cent in the United Kingdom.
  5. - Isle of Man Holiday 1970s. Amateur film of an Isle of Man holiday in the 1970s. The mass market for the island was Lancashire and Yorkshire mill workers travelling on Wakes Weeks, a trade that declined sharply as cheap air travel to the Mediterranean spread.
  6. - Ferry on the Mersey. An Isle of Man ferry on the Mersey in 1979. The heyday of holiday traffic had passed by then, but the boats were still packed at peak times.
  7. - Douglas - Central Promenade along Douglas Bay. Central Promenade along Douglas Bay. The unbroken run of Victorian and Edwardian frontage is the physical record of the mass tourism boom; the same terraces were sealed behind wire as an internment camp in 1940.
  8. - Douglas - Harris Promenade - Sefton Hotel. The Sefton Hotel on Harris Promenade, Douglas. The Sefton was among the buildings requisitioned in the Second World War, when the island's empty boarding houses were turned into internment camps.
  9. - Douglas - 'Stabit' on display near Loch Promenade. 'Stabit' on display near Loch Promenade, Douglas. The name comes from the island's motto, 'Quocunque Jeceris Stabit', whichever way you throw it it will stand, which is Latin and dates from the 17th century, later than the triskelion itself.
  10. - Douglas - Duke Street - Feegan's Lounge. Feegan's Lounge on Duke Street, Douglas, in 2003. The pubs and lounges behind the promenade served a resident trade year round rather than the summer visitors.
  11. - Douglas Bay Isle Of Man Panorama Source1. Douglas Bay. The town became the island's resort capital on the back of the steamer trade, with a promenade of boarding houses built to receive Lancashire and Yorkshire mill workers on their Wakes Weeks.
  12. - Snaefell,Isle of Man Steam Packet. The Steam Packet fast craft Snaefell at Douglas. The company was founded in 1830 because crossings before then were irregular and unreliable and the island could be cut off for weeks, which makes the Steam Packet a self-determination story as much as a transport one.
  13. - Isle-of-Man--Douglas--Jubilee-clock-2. The Jubilee clock in Douglas, also known as the Victoria Clock. It was erected for Queen Victoria's jubilee, in the decades when the resort trade was at its height.
  14. - Isle-of-Man--Douglas--The-Henry-Bloom-Noble-Library-1. The Henry Bloom Noble Library in Douglas. Noble was a Manx philanthropist whose bequests funded much of the town's public provision in the resort era.
  15. - Loch Promenade - Douglas - Isle of Man - kingsley - 20-APR-09. The southern end of Loch Promenade in Douglas, with Manx flags on the flagpoles. Loch Promenade was reclaimed and built in the Victorian resort boom and is the front line of the town's boarding house trade.
  16. - I.O.M. Fisheries Protection vessel at Douglas. The Isle of Man fisheries protection vessel Barrule entering Douglas Harbour. The island runs its own fisheries protection because it is a self-governing Crown Dependency with its own territorial sea, which is also the sea included in its UNESCO Biosphere designation.
  17. - Isle of Man Coastal Path. The Isle of Man coastal path. The Raad ny Foillan, the Road of the Gull, runs around the whole island and links its beaches, cliffs and harbours.
  18. - Sir Norman. The Norman Wisdom statue on the island, where the comedian lived for many years. Douglas built an entertainment economy and then kept some of the entertainers.
  19. - Douglas Hotel. A hotel in Douglas. The town's hotel stock was built for a market that arrived by steamer from Lancashire and Yorkshire on Wakes Weeks, an entire industrial region on holiday at once.
  20. - Broadway Baptist Church. 's growth brought a full complement of churches to serve both residents and summer visitors.
  21. - Douglas, Isle of Man - panoramio (2). Douglas (Doolish), the island's capital and largest town, recorded at 26,677 people in the 2021 census out of an island population of 84,069.
  22. - Doolish 2013 66. Stained glass and staircase inside Douglas City Hall, 2013. The civic buildings of Douglas were built with resort money in the decades after Tynwald moved there from Castletown in 1874.
  23. - Snaefell is launched at Birkenhead (11-03-1948). The Steam Packet vessel Snaefell launched at Birkenhead on 11 March 1948. The company has run the Douglas to Liverpool link since its first crossing on 17 August 1830, when Mona's Isle carried 15 saloon and 17 steerage passengers under Captain William Gill.
  24. - Hurley 22 circumnavigates Isle of Man. A small yacht circumnavigating the Isle of Man. The island is roughly 32 miles long and 14 wide, and its whole territorial sea is included in the UNESCO Biosphere designation of 2016.
  25. - Misty Lighthouse. Douglas Head lighthouse in mist. The head closes the southern end of Douglas Bay and carried the camera obscura and pleasure grounds that entertained steamer passengers.
  26. - Circuit-douglas-1933-(openstreetmap). A map of the 1933 Douglas motor racing circuit. Road racing on closed public roads was illegal in Britain, but Tynwald could and did close its own roads, which is the constitutional reason motorsport came to the island at all.
  27. - Fickle British weather. Weather over Douglas. The island's climate is the constant risk in a resort economy built on summer visitors from the northern English mill towns.
  28. - Old Laxey, Promenade. The promenade at Old Laxey (Laksaa). Laxey developed as a mining village first and a seaside destination second, which is unusual on the island's east coast.
  29. - Mona’s Queen III anchor (2). The anchor of Mona's Queen III at Kallow Point, a memorial to those lost when the Steam Packet vessel was sunk at Dunkirk on 29 May 1940. Manx ships and crews were taken up for the evacuation while the island itself was being turned into a network of internment camps.
  30. - Johnny Watterson Lane, Douglas
  31. - Isle of Man Steam Packet old HQ. The former headquarters of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, Manx Sheshaght Phaggad Bree Ellan Vannin. The company was founded in 1830 and describes itself as the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, a claim it makes about itself.
  32. - Douglas and the Ferries inc Ben-My-Chree and Manannan - Isle of Man by Drone. Douglas and the ferries Ben-my-Chree and Manannan from the air. The Steam Packet has operated out of Douglas since its first crossing to Liverpool on 17 August 1830.
  33. - Holiday Isle: A history of tourism in the Isle of Man. A history of tourism on the island. The trade began with the Steam Packet in 1830, peaked with Lancashire and Yorkshire mill workers on Wakes Weeks, and declined from the mid twentieth century as the island's economy turned to finance and e-gaming.
  34. - Fishing boats south of isle of man filmed with a drone 1.8 miles from shore. Fishing boats south of the island filmed from the air. The Manx fishery has moved from herring, which collapsed from over 300 Manx nickeys in 1879 to 25 boats in 1922, to scallops and queen scallops.
  35. - Ridgeway Street, Douglas. Ridgeway Street in Douglas. Behind the promenade frontage, the town is built of steep terraced streets running up from the bay.
  36. - The Rosemount on Woodbourne Road, Douglas. 1940 the same building stock was requisitioned wholesale for internment.
  37. - Peel Road towards Braddan Bridge, Douglas
  38. - Isle of Man Massed Bands Live from the Villa Marina. Massed bands at the Villa Marina in Douglas. The Villa Marina and the Gaiety Theatre are the surviving grand entertainment venues of the island's Victorian and Edwardian holiday trade.
  39. - Round the Isle of Man cruise on the Steam Packet's "Ben-my-Chree" - 2008. A cruise around the island on the Steam Packet's Ben-my-Chree in 2008. Ben-my-Chree, girl of my heart in Manx, is a name the company has used for several vessels.
  40. - Niarbyl Bay & White Beach, Isle of Man. Niarbyl Bay and White Beach on the west coast. Niarbyl means the tail in Manx, from the reef running out from the shore.
  41. - Manx Wildlife Trust working with Praxis Care and Sailing for the Disabled. 's coast and sea is organised through a small network of local charities.
  42. - Island Escapes and MWT. Island Escapes with the Manx Wildlife Trust. Wildlife tourism draws on the island's UNESCO Biosphere designation, awarded in 2016 and covering the whole jurisdiction.
  43. - Isle of Man Biosphere Reserve is #ProudToShare sustainable fishing and tourism practices. UNESCO on the island's sustainable fishing and tourism practices. The Isle of Man was designated a Biosphere Reserve in 2016 and remains the first whole jurisdiction to hold the status, including all its land and territorial sea.
  44. - Douglas Douglas Head View to Douglas Harbour 16. Douglas Harbour seen from Douglas Head. The harbour is the arrival point for the steamer trade that built the town and still handles the island's principal sea link.
  45. - Douglas Douglas Head 1. Douglas Head, above the harbour entrance. The head carried the town's pleasure grounds, its camera obscura and its lighthouse.
  46. - Douglas Loch Promenade 11. Loch Promenade, Douglas. The promenade was laid out on reclaimed ground in the 1870s specifically to give the resort a sea frontage of hotels and boarding houses.
  47. - Douglas Gaiety Mall 1. The Gaiety Mall at the Villa Marina, Douglas. The Villa Marina and the neighbouring Gaiety Theatre were the resort's entertainment core, built for audiences of visiting mill workers.
  48. - Douglas Gaiety Mall 2. The Gaiety Mall at the Villa Marina, Douglas. The complex sits directly on the promenade, so visitors moved between boarding house, beach and ballroom without leaving the sea front.
  49. - HSC MANANNAN- ISLE OF MAN STEAM PACKET - FROM DOUGLAS ISLE OF MAN TO BELFAST ON A FLAT CALM DAY.. The fast craft Manannan on the Steam Packet's Douglas to Belfast route. The company was founded in 1830 because crossings before then were irregular and unreliable and the island could be cut off for weeks at a time.
  50. - Extremely Rough Seas! Douglas to Liverpool on the Isle of Man Steam Packet Manannan. A rough crossing from Douglas to Liverpool aboard the Manannan. The Liverpool route is the original Steam Packet service, first sailed by the Mona's Isle on 17 August 1830 under Captain William Gill with 15 saloon and 17 steerage passengers.
  51. - A trip around the Isle of Man. Manx National Heritage's tour around the island. Manx National Heritage runs the Manx Museum at Douglas along with Cregneash, Castle Rushen, Peel Castle, Rushen Abbey and the Laxey Wheel.
  52. - Summer in the Isle of Man. Summer on the island, from Manx National Heritage. The island's holiday economy was built on the Steam Packet and the railways, both Victorian and both still operating.
  53. - Manxman arrives in Douglas for the first time.. The Steam Packet's new vessel Manxman arriving at Douglas for the first time. The company has run the island's sea links continuously since 1830, a service founded because the island had previously been dependent on irregular and unreliable crossings.
  54. - Service to mark the 50th anniversary of the Summerland tragedy. The service held in 2023 marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Summerland fire of 2 August 1973, in which fifty people died at the Douglas (Doolish) leisure complex. Eleven of the dead were under twenty. It remains the island's deadliest peacetime disaster.
  55. - Norman. The statue of Norman Wisdom in Douglas (Doolish). Wisdom lived on the island for decades, and the comedians and entertainers drawn to the resort are part of the same story as the boarding houses and ballrooms.
  56. - The Bee Gees on Loch Promenade. The Bee Gees statue on Loch Promenade, Douglas. The brothers were born on the island before the family emigrated, and the town claims them alongside Norman Wisdom.
  57. - Peel Rd. Peel Road, Douglas. The road runs west out of the capital towards Peel (Purt ny hInshey) and carried both the railway and the main coach traffic.
  58. - Lort St
  59. - Statue of Queen Victoria. The statue of Queen Victoria in Douglas. The island's resort boom coincided almost exactly with her reign, and the town's civic monuments date from it.
  60. - Douglas Loch Promenade and St Thomas' Church. Loch Promenade and St Thomas' Church, Douglas. The church spire is the landmark of the promenade's Victorian skyline.
  61. - The Gaiety Theatre, Douglas Promenade. The Gaiety Theatre on Douglas Promenade. The Gaiety is attributed to the theatre architect Frank Matcham and is the surviving centrepiece of the resort's entertainment provision.
  62. - Finch Road
  63. - Isle of Man Courts of Justice building, Douglas. The Isle of Man Courts of Justice building on Albert Street, Douglas. The island legislates for itself on most domestic matters; the United Kingdom is responsible only for defence and international representation.
  64. - Isle of Man, Douglas promenade - seafront walk 4K. A walk along Douglas promenade. Douglas (Doolish) became the island's resort capital in the Victorian period, its seafront lined with boarding houses built for Lancashire and Yorkshire mill workers arriving on Wakes Weeks.
  65. - Manannán Mac Lir: The Wandering Bard (Irish Mythology). Manannan mac Lir in Irish mythology. He is the island's tutelary figure of legend, said to shroud it in mist; whether the island is named for the god or the god for the island is disputed by scholars and should not be asserted either way.
  66. - Sailing Onboard IoM SPCo Manxman Arriving Heysham Harbour 13/09/2023. Sailing aboard the Steam Packet's Manxman into Heysham. The Heysham route is the island's principal freight and passenger link to England, alongside the Liverpool sailings the company began in 1830.
  67. - DAY ONE of the New Ferry to Douglas, Isle of Man. Welcome Aboard MANXMAN, Enjoy the Crossing.... The first day of the new Steam Packet ferry Manxman on the Douglas route. The company traces continuous operation to 1830 and the name Manxman has been carried by several of its vessels.
  68. - Derelict Hotel near Castletown. A derelict hotel near Castletown, seen from St Michael's Isle. The collapse of mass holiday traffic from the 1970s onward left the island with more hotel stock than it could use.
  69. - Agenda 28.4.25 - Jason Moorhouse on the Steam Packet and a disrespectful DoI?. Agenda on the Steam Packet and the Department of Infrastructure. The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, founded in 1830, describes itself as the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world.
  70. - What no one tells you about the Isle of Man 🇮🇲. A visitor's account of the island. Just under half of residents at the 2021 census were born on the island, with 38.2 per cent born in the United Kingdom and 1.9 per cent in the Republic of Ireland.
  71. - Manx Newscast: Manxman's travels through Covid-19 pandemic inspires new book. A book inspired by the Steam Packet vessel Manxman's travels during the Covid-19 pandemic. Sea links matter disproportionately to an island whose founding motive for its own shipping company in 1830 was that it could otherwise be cut off for weeks.
  72. - POV Beach Walk & Drone Views of Port Erin Promenade | Isle of Man Coastal Journey. A beach walk and drone views at Port Erin promenade. Port Erin (Purt Chiarn) was developed as a resort in the Victorian period and was half of the Rushen women's internment camp in 1940.
  73. - 4K Isle of Man Steam Packet Manannan Liverpool to Douglas and back.. The Steam Packet's Manannan on the Liverpool to Douglas route and back. Liverpool has been the company's principal English port since its first crossing in August 1830.
  74. - Heysham to Douglas with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. The Steam Packet crossing from Heysham to Douglas. The company describes itself as the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, a claim it makes for itself and which is widely repeated.
  75. - Blue concert, Villa Marina Isle of Man 🎤🇮🇲. A concert at the Villa Marina, Douglas. The venue's Royal Hall opened in the Edwardian period and continues to carry the island's touring entertainment programme.
  76. - Days (and nights) out with Vikings on the Isle of Man.. York Archaeology on Viking material from the Isle of Man. The island's Norse period produced a Norse-Gaelic society whose evidence is in stone crosses, burials and silver hoards, not in generic Viking imagery.
  77. - 6 hours on a bumpy ferry across the Irish Sea (disastrous). A rough six hour ferry crossing of the Irish Sea. The island's sea links have always been weather-dependent, which is exactly why Manx interests founded their own shipping company in 1830 rather than relying on outside operators.
  78. - The Isle Of Man Holiday - August 2025. A visitor's record of an August holiday on the island. August is Manx Grand Prix month, the amateur and classic meeting over the Mountain Course, and a quieter counterpart to the June TT.
  79. - Isle of Man Walk 4K - Douglas Quay & Promenade 🇮🇲. A walk along Douglas quay and promenade. The Loch Promenade frontage was built in the Victorian boom, when the island's visitor trade rested on steamer arrivals from Liverpool, Fleetwood and Heysham.
  80. - EPISODE TWO: Visit Isle of Man x Alfie Watts: The Great Isle of Man Challenge. An episode of the tourism board's Great Isle of Man Challenge series. Visit Isle of Man is the island's official tourism body, and much of the promotional superlative language attached to the island's attractions originates with it.
  81. - The Forgotten Inferno: Summerland Fire Disaster That Killed 50 in Minutes (1973). A documentary on the Summerland fire of 2 August 1973 at Douglas (Doolish). Fifty people died and about eighty were seriously injured when the leisure centre burned during the summer season. The figure was arrived at slowly: the fire brigade first recorded 51, revised it to 48, and two more people later died in hospital, which is why other tolls still circulate.
  82. - A life-changing song for Douglas Buxton - showbusiness at the Falcon Cliff Hotel - and a mystery .... Manx Radio on entertainment at the Falcon Cliff Hotel. Falcon Cliff was requisitioned as a hospital during the Second World War internment period, one of many Douglas hotels taken over by the state.
  83. - A couple of tourism trailblazers plus memories of the Derby Castle - and a Guild recordbreaker!. Manx Radio on tourism pioneers and memories of the Derby Castle. Derby Castle at the north end of Douglas promenade was a Victorian entertainment complex and is now the terminus of the Manx Electric Railway.
  84. - Emergency Doors Were Chained Shut. The Summerland Disaster. Human Narration. A Disaster Documentary. A documentary on the Summerland disaster of 2 August 1973, the island's deadliest peacetime fire. Fifty people died at the Douglas (Doolish) leisure complex. The inquiry returned a verdict of misadventure and blamed no individual, but condemned the delay in evacuation and the building's flammable materials.
  85. - The Caliburn Isle of Man Darts Festival 2026 - ParaDarts Live Finals from The Villa Marina Douglas. The ParaDarts finals of the 2026 Isle of Man Darts Festival at the Villa Marina in Douglas. The Villa Marina is the island's principal civic entertainment venue and a survival of the Victorian and Edwardian holiday trade.
  86. - Isle of Man Walk 4K - Douglas Promenade Patrol 2 feat. Douglas Quay 🇮🇲. A walk along Douglas promenade and quay. Douglas had 26,677 residents at the 2021 census, out of an island population of 84,069.
  87. - Why Nobody Wants to Visit The Isle of Man Anymore. A critical look at the island's decline as a holiday destination. The Victorian and mid-century holiday trade, built on steamer traffic from the Lancashire mill towns, fell away through the later twentieth century as the island's economy shifted to finance, insurance and e-gaming.
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