the promenade entrance to the tower, a chair lift was introduced. In 1898–99 an acrobat named Hardy performed for a season at the tower without a safety net and often without a balancing pole on the high wire above the dancing platform. In 1908 the 'Himalaya Railway' was replaced with a scenic railway. Tower Athletic Ground An area was set aside within the grounds for athletics, aptly named the Tower Athletic Ground. It consisted of a stadium opened in 1896; the hope was to provide additional entertainment for visitors to the tower in the winter months. The capacity of the grounds varied, but at one point was as high as 100,000, although attendances rarely, if ever, approached that figure. The New Brighton Tower and Recreation Company formed a football team, New Brighton Tower F.C., and applied for membership to the Lancashire League. The team joined at the start of the 1897–98 season and promptly won the league. The club then applied for election to the Football League. Although they were initially rejected, the league later decided to expand Division Two by four clubs and New Brighton Tower were accepted. They carried on playing until 1901 when the company disbanded the team as they did not gain the fan base they were hoping for and so it was no longer considered financially viable. The Tower Athletic Grounds was a multi-purpose stadium and ground that could be laid out for athletics field events. The field was encircled by an athletics track surrounded by a banked cycle track, which hosted the World Cycling championships in July 1922. It was the biggest sporting and motorcycling track in the North of England. In 1933, the athletics track was replaced for use every Saturday by motorcycle speedway racing. Disaster struck the motorcycling in 1911 when T. Henshaw's bike struck six spectators at around . This left Henshaw with serious fractures and one woman with a severe brain injury. In another incident on 18 May 1959 five people were injured while watching a motorcycling stunt when a wide section of stands collapsed, causing the spectators to fall to the ground. On 15 May 1919 a fire destroyed the grandstand. During the Second World War, the United States Army took over the Tower Athletic Grounds as a storage facility for military vehicles to be used in the invasion of France. Following the war the stadium was reopened as