Blackpool Pleasure Beach by Mack Rides in Germany. Icon is the first coaster in the UK to feature a double launch and is the largest ever single investment at the park costing £16.25 million. Pleasure Beach was founded in 1896 by Alderman William George Bean after he failed in his attempt to become an advertising man on New York's Madison Avenue. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1897 and opened two separate amusement parks; one adjacent to Euston Road in Great Yarmouth and another in Blackpool, opposite the tram terminus. The Great Yarmouth amusement park failed to generate much interest and so
Roller Coaster (Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach) the second tallest and second fastest wooden roller coaster in the UK. It is a Grade II listed building. In 1929 Pat Collins, the owner of Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, attended the Paris Colonial Exposition where the largest attraction was a scenic railway. The Scenic Railway had been designed by German Herr Erich Heidrich of Hamburg especially for the Exposition (Heidrich was a scenic railway designer, having the previous year designed and built Montaña Suiza at a Spanish amusement park), and was operated at the Exposition by showman Hugo Hans. At the close of the Exposition, Pat Collins bought the