Blackpool - has it always been like this or do I have rose-tinted specs?

Premier Inns are usually a safe bet, compared to eg Travelodge. You’ll be ok as long as you stick to the prom and town centre but I wouldn’t venture any further and you don’t want to be out late when it gets even grimmer.

Oh gosh. DD has a dance competition in Blackpool coming up. We've booked into the Premier Inn, thinking that would be a fairly safe bet. Is it going to be utterly grim?

I used to go to Blackpool in the late 70's watching bands (Jenks bar anyone?)
It was exceptionally grim one street back. Very unlike my Cheshire village😊

I live just outside if Blackpool and to me it has always been an absolute dump. The prom looks nice but get one street back and it's horrendous.

Having to use Blackpool Vic is even more terrifying. Just pray if you do visit that you don't need any healthcare.

I went on a hen night about 20 years ago and it was grim then, I have heard it’s one of the most deprived areas in the country.

It was ok in the 90s. It was ropey in the early 2000s. It was dire in the 2010s.

I can't imagine I would want to go anywhere near the place now.

Just to add, apart from a glorious prom, which stretches from Lytham to Fleetwood, the beaches are so absolutely fantastic. Sandy, cleam, lots of shell and pebble collecting opprotunties too!
Cleveleys, about 5 miles from blackpool is quieter, but has child-friendly actitivites.
So yes, some areas are horrid, but explore the outer reaches and you'll be pleasantly surprised

We were in Blackpool last November and we had a great time! I was pleasantly surprised as I had been about 15 years ago and thought it was awful.

Admittedly we didn't stay in Blackpool, we stayed in Ribby Hall but we went into Blackpool a couple of times, once to see the Christmas market, which was ok and another to go to the watermark mentioned previously on here, which we again really enjoyed.

We would go back, but wouldn't stay, I'm not sure any of the properties looked nice enough tbh.

We did stick to the prom though. Never ventured 'inland'

I went in 2016 with a friend and it was great. Our kids really enjoyed it even though every meal came with chips! But we stayed in an hotel rather than a guest house and didn’t venture to the streets behind. My friend kept saying how lovely it was as there was no litter and no swearing!

I live in Blackpool and work in a department that looks at what needs improvement. As such! My job mainly surrounds families with young children.

Yes it's deprived, yes we hit top of the charts for all the bad stuff but there is so much going on to improve it for residents.

Landlord permits to bring housing to a good standard, hmos are not as prolific anymore, access to nhs dentists for all children under 6 years (soon increasing to 8 years), increased health visitor visits, speech and language support to help the NHS, regeneration is happening and new plans for more going in often.

It will always be a transient town, it will probably always have a drug problem but there is intense work going on to support the town and the next generation living here.

Rose tinted glasses. I grew up on the outskirts of Blackpool and it was a shithole then. Too busy to do anything in summer, everything closed in winter. It was always filthy. Cheap nasty bedsits. And even back then a disproportionate number of sex shops.

I used to go in the mid to late 70s with my friends, it was a bit grim then as well but we enjoyed ourselves in those bierkellers

Blackpool's an utter shithole - and I live in Ramsgate so I'm hardly Hyacinth Bouquet.

It's shocking, really, that as an island nation we have such disregard for its coastal communities and have allowed them to disintegrate to the extent that places like Blackpool and - to a lesser but still significant extent - Margate/Ramsgate. They have such enormous potential and could be a huge driver of tourism, both national and international. It's incredibly shortsighted to allow them to decay and decline.

My (then) boyfriend got accosted by a very insistent prostitute, just off the sea front. He and I were holding hands at the time! She behaved as if I did not exist, just kept on listing her services and trying to drag him with her.
This was September 1984.
We had been there before on day trips & did like the sea front for all its noise, rides etc… but this was a bit 😱

DH grew up going there every year in the 70s/80s.
MIL constantly used to go on about the fact we went abroad and we should just go there instead and how much better it was.
So we paid for her and FIL to go for the weekend about 15 years ago, she never ever mentioned it again. I’m guessing it was very bad.

It’s pretty grim and has been for years.

It’s a shit hole.

Im not a million miles away from Blackpool and an old colleague of mine lived slap bang in the glamour of it all, he couldn’t actually sell his house to get a move to Rhyl (genuinely that’s where he wanted to retire, Im not being sarcastic) and because his house just couldn’t sell he did a raffle for it. I think at the time his house was worth about 15k tops so he just wanted what he could get for it.

Now my children think Blackpool is the height of sophistication and the greatest of days out that holds a place of magic in their hearts, but I find the place quite unnerving. The undercurrent of social issues and poverty are just so extreme.

We went for a week long holiday every year on the 80s! such happy memories ….. I’ve only visited the place once as an adult probably 2005 and I thought it was run down then

I live in Lytham too @Pyjamatimenow <waves>

Blackpool is awful. But there has been some good investment in the prom and the new civil service building and the new multiversity will be good when it comes. Abingdon Street Market is a great new addition

I drive down the prom to get to work and the levels of homelessness just seem to go up. I rarely go into Blackpool but shops seem to be closing and there is so much drink drugs and violence it’s horrible.

it needs a lot of investment to save it

We went in 2018 and took DC and DP's parents as they loved the place.

I had never been before, although obviously you hear all about it growing up. Much like you OP I was shocked at how knackered the place looked, especially away from the seafront.

Well this thread is depressing seen as I live in blackpool! Yes the promenade and a few roads near are run down and deprived but there’s also a lot of nice places st Anne’s lytham Stanley park, it frustrates me because I walk the dog all year round and as soon as it’s school holidays or summer the beach is full of trash whereas other times of the year it’s lovely! I feel like a lot of people who are not from blackpool like to come and give blackpool a bad name! I’m not saying there aren’t parts that are “rough” but that’s just like any other areas like Liverpool Manchester etc all have there bad areas!

The front isn't OK either. Gypsies flogging their poor horses up and down the prom. Hideous place, hideous people.