Can we prevent the plague of the future?

Blackpool Tower Dungeon have teamed up with Blackpool Sixth Form College to prepare for the plague of the future.

Hundreds of people a day descend into the heart of the Dungeon, journeying through 1000 years of history. From torturers at Lancaster Castle, the Pendle Witches and a trip down Plague Street. The Blackpool Tower Dungeon have decided to take their history lesson one step further, tasking Blackpool Sixth Form to take learnings from pandemic history and apply this to the future.

According to research we see a pandemic every 100 years, dating back to 1347, we’ve seen The Black Death, The Plague of Milan (1630), The Great Plague of London (1665) the Spanish Flu (1918) and recently COVID-19 (2019).

Working together, the history and design students have been delving into the data, to see what materials and products have been used throughout the years to help prevent the spread of diseases.

From plague doctor masks to the more recent face coverings, the teams have been studying every detail, to create a garment that could be used to future proof society, so the people of the year 2120 might look back at this one day!

Today, students visited The Blackpool Tower to showcase 10 blueprints of designs created from the re-search. A selected amount will go into production and be on show at the attraction later this year.

Kajj, Triple BTEC Art & Design Student said: “It’s been fun to look back through history and see the art and creativity throughout. I’ve enjoyed bringing together lots of different ideas and making them my own, taking a lot of inspiration from various things, but keeping my design unique.”

Aaron Edgar, Head of Operation at Blackpool Tower said: “The designs that have been produced are fantastic, to see the blueprints today really showcased the great work that has been done and we can’t wait to see the items that are actually going to be brought to life later this year”