An iconic Blackpool Pleasure Beach attraction where visitors spent hours closed down 30 years ago this week.

The Fun House was a fixture at the seaside theme park for more than five decades before being destroyed in a huge fire in 1991.

Designed by architect Joseph Emberton in the 1930s, the Fun House was part of a major modernisation of the park.

Its flamboyant building housed an array of delights, including a moving staircase, steep slide and mixing bowl ride.

Witnesses claimed that flames, which could be seen miles away, reached 100ft high as they took hold of the Fun House late at night.

The fire was reportedly first spotted by a pizza delivery man, while staff in the fairground had been evacuated due to a firebomb threat four hours earlier.

Eighty firefighters were sent to the scene and had the blaze, under control by around 1am.

However, the damage was devastating and the Fun House, which first opened in 1934, was not to be saved. The overall damage from the fire was estimated at £10million.

On the site of the iconic Fun House, bosses developed Valhalla, the world’s biggest indoor ride and regular award winner and fan favourite.

Years on from the closure, former visitors fondly remembered their time at the Fun House, with many noting that it would likely prove a nightmare to health and safety inspectors if it ever returned it its previous form.

Writing online, one user said: “We as a big family used to spend hours in there in the early 80s was cheaper than paying to go on the rides on the pleasure beach. Yes to the young ones today this was before wristbands, the best was the spinning wooden wheel it was hard to stay in the middle.”

Another said: “The entrance was like an obstacle course (my mum hated it), but once you got inside, I remember we all chilled, there were plenty of seats, arcade machines and those rides that would never pass heath and safety these days.”

One person added: “Just remembered we used to sneak in through the exit wooden turnstiles (if you were skinny) so many happy memories ,never ate all day just used to drink water out of the toilet taps . Most kids were poor back then, which made for the best friends in the best times. LOVED IT .”

Another wrote: “I so remember this place from the 80’s used to go down for September and spend all Sunday evening. Would go to PB with a fiver in my pocket, go on the “whiteknuckle” rides then save my last 50p to get into the funhouse and spend the rest of the evening in there, up and down the chutes God knows how many times but you had to be sure you wore tracky bottoms or you would stick to the wood and ALWAYS wear a long sleeve top or the friction burns would be a nightmare especially on the spinning disk and barrel roll under the chute.”

Another added: “I loved this place. Spent so much time in there the old dear in the payment booth used to let me go home for dinner at 5 then let me skip the turnstile on my return that evening. Jukebox up at the back next to the spinning wheel, Boxer Beat, Paul Young Wherever I Lay My hat and Cyndi Lauper’s Time after Time seemed to be on a continuous loop.

“Great fun, I remember a gang of us who became fortnight friends playing one man hunt in there with Big Joe the skinhead from Harthill Scotland (Nutty Boys on the back of his Harrington).

“What a laugh, scrambling down a cargo net with only a row of Space Invader machines to break your fall.”