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

We visited with our DDs a few years ago, and I absolutely hated it. The beach area was good fun, but the place itself was absolutely awful. Such a shame. We won’t be going back.

Has gone very downhill, sadly.

Went there for the first time ever - despite passing close to it probably 5 or 6 times a year - last year as we were at Party in the Park in Preston. My DH had looked dubious but said something like ' I suppose you've got to see it to believe it' and we got the train in about 6pm. I've travelled a lot in my life to some very dodgy places - and the area round the train station was up there with Lima Bus Station and a border crossing in the Golden Triangle.

Open drug taking, full on vomitty passed out drunks, very unsafe feeling - we walked down to the prom - which was fine-ish (a weird mix of off their head drunks and kids on little stabiliser bikes) - and then got the train back.

It was awful.

@Goodadvice1980 We went to Albert & Lion.

My DH loved it as a kid, and as I've never been, decided we'd go for a few days.
Never again. I couldn't wait to come home.

Morecambe is much closer to other desirable areas though and benefits from this. (E.g Russell group university with Lancaster locally, the Lakes are just 20 mins away and the bay gateway itself (making both of those accessible) plus you can see other areas from the morecambe prom itself (that are wealthier) e.g Arnside and Silverdale.

Morecambe is also smaller and easier to invest in and it’s never been scary like Blackpool is.

8 out of the top 10 most deprived areas in the UK are in Blackpool. I suppose now it's cheap and easy to get somewhere with everything Blackpool has, but without the freezing, sideways rain, it's not doing so well.

The root cause needs tackling and that is the people.
People need jobs and decent transport to get to jobs. Addicts need support and re-hab. Landlords need challenging over the grim state of their properties. My town isn’t rich but people take pride in the little they have. Building a new leisure centre or whatever won’t do anything unless help is given to the people first.

It's sad. I took my ds for a couple of weekends there about 10 years ago and we've had days out there. Always fun but sadly, it's always been like that a few rows back from the prom. It has got worse. I read recently that Blackpool has something like twice as many deaths from alcohol addiction and drug addiction as the national average, 3 times as many from smoking. The average age of death was quite low, early 70s and they have more children in care than an ANY other borough in the Uk. Seaside towns always have a lot of disadvantaged people, poverty and a homelessness issue alongside the flashing lights and the beach.

Surely there’s a good income to be had with all the dancing competitions? Many international competitions held there, of all levels and styles, surely it’s in the best interest of the council to clean the place up??

Out of curiosity, Layton Rakes, Velvet Coaster or Albert & the Lion 😂

We went to see the lights. The Tower was closed, no shows anywhere. Lights were not as spectacular as 10 years ago.
Big hotel on the sea side of the prom is a run down migrant hostel. Not attractive.
Classiest place we found was Wetherspoons. Says it all

Morecambe seems to be coming out of the other side … it’s getting investment in there.
Still has “seaside town issues” but a more pleasant day out (even better when The Eden Project arrives)

Blackpools big issues is that, for decades, it was run by 2 families, who were interested in making money, not infrastructure.

what's grim about AI? ( asking someone who obviously hasn't a clue and is trotting out the beery brits abroad line- so snobbish and wrong)

We went for a few weekends away there in 2000s for partying mostly and it was full of stag and hens and party town. Bars and clubs everywhere and all packed out. You'll still get some of that.

It hasn't got the same spirit now and a lot of the clubs have gone.

It's the type of place that suffers social problems more than most as well. 90s and 00s more of a happy time.

Which town are you referring to?

This is the same for a lot of sea side towns around the country, unfortunately.

So many people have tried and failed to sort out inner Blackpool and failed over the years. One reason is that it needs money invested in housing, education, healthcare and industry, and that needs looking at in the round. Unfortunately previous governments have had different priorities so it might get a new college one term, a health centre or two the next parliament, and so on. Those prop things up for a bit longer but don't actually do anything to fix the root causes. I had to go for work last summer and we walked past two men smoking crack in a doorway at 3pm in the afternoon. Even their best chippy (Yorkshire Fisheries) near the Tower closed at 7pm on a beautiful midsummer evening. A chippy in a seaside resort in the summer shouldn't be closing at that time.

We used to go in the late 70's and early 80's, its around 1.5 hours from us and I had many happy memories so I was excited to take my own DC.
It was bloody awful, you even have to pay just to get into The Pleasure Beach now. We live in a "gritty" Northern town so I am not shocked by anything other than leafy suburbs but the place was a total shithole.
A friend is very high up in Safeguarding for our local Council and when the choir both our girls were in proposed a trip to Blackpool she said that there was no way she would allow her daughter to go as she knew that it was a Hot spot or Paedophiles. I would normally write that off as hysteria but this woman had actual info not just rumour and suposition - of course she didn't share any specific details with me but what she told me was enough to not let DD go on the trip either.

I was there with my friend in 2014. I also went on childhood hols and loved it. Can still smell the guesthouse we stayed in (good smell). FF 40 years. It's a hole. It was dirty, vomit on the streets.....didn't feel very safe. Wouldn't go back lol.

Blackpool is often listed as one of the most deprived areas in the country. I grew up there and it is absolutely horrible - always has been. There have always been seasonal workers and a seedy atmosphere. The issues with drugs are not new but just more obvious after decades of cuts.

Round Stanley Park is nicer but it is a town that is past it's heyday and not attractive as a commuter area to a more prosperous area or city.

Blackpool has the lowest life expectancy in England

https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/people/new-official-figures-show-blackpool-has-the-lowest-life-expectancy-in-the-uk-4237105

I used to go as a kid and loved it -I have fond memories of the lights

Went back with an ex boyfriend years later (2016 ish) and was shocked

We checked in and went for a walk

Half an hour later we saw was an old bloke sat on the beach (he must have been in his 80's) and a young woman (must have been in her 20's) was giving him a bj-in full view of anyone walking past

This would have been about 6pm ish

It was filthy and not much to see-it seemed to be in decay

I was shocked at some of the knives (they looked like Edward scissorhands) they sold in shops on the seafront next to the kids keyrings and teddies

We did the pleasure Beach and the tower but after that,there was nothing much left

I'm in no rush to go back

They do All Inclusive breaks that attract the Benidorm holidaymakers. Grim

I was like you, we used to go for day trips in the 80's and I've been to the pleasure beach as a teen / young adult which would have been mid 90's. Went back a few years ago and I was gobsmacked at the state of the place and the people. It's a real shame but I guess the tourist industry can't compete with overseas and there's not a lot else around to provide employment opportunities.