Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Blimey!!

[MarthasGinYard]

Now I know the Grand National and Big Dipper have been there since Gods Dog, my own DF who is 85 was recollecting stories of riding them In the 50's and how 'bone shaker' they were then....

But NOTHING can have prepared me for the experience.

And they actually look in parts like old pallets and crates nailed together....

With bits missing!!

Any recollections??

I remember the fun house well. My family live in Blackpool so when we all got together the parents would drop us at the FH and feck off to the pubs for a few hours. We loved it and were devastated when it burnt down.
All this talk of roller coasters but no one has mentioned the scariest ride by far. The world's fastest and most realistic carousel. The horses are life size and you only have reins to hold on to. Well you did last time we went.

The carousel indeed went at a right lick.

It did have bars to hold though which I'm guessing had been added.

Just loved the authentic actual leather reins though.

Fabulous

DH hated heights and coasters, but went on all the big rides at BPB when he was tanked up. I am way too scared!

Ah Blackpool Pleasure beach. I haven't been there since it was affordable.

I'm not much for the rides. Never have been. So paying £25 - £39 to get in and go on maybe one or two rides (gotta do the Ghost train and Haunted Swing!) is ridiculous. I much preferred paying per ride with free entry. I think I'd be even more hacked off paying that much for rickety old rides that have been there since 1935! (Grand National)

Boy this thread is bringing back memories!
In the seventies we used to have family days out and the kids would always shout out for Blackpool whilst the parents stood out for Drayton Manor Park or Alton Towers. In those days all they had at DMP and AT were rhododendrons 😆
That fun house was fantastic, there was something very cool about going to the next floor down using that tube. The cat and mouse used to swing suddenly on the high up corners, jerking your neck about. The stuff of nightmares.

I've just watched the Steeplechase on You Tube , its 10 times worse that I remember it. It's so high up and you are literally perched on a shiny, slippy horse with just a little belt to hold you on. How did I ever think that was safe?

We used to go to Blackpool a lot when I was a kid. In fact it was my choice for my “leaving home for uni day out” with the family back in the late 90’s. Crazy golf, fish and chips and the Pleasure Beach. Haven’t been since about 2000 though!

DH is way too middle class to ever have been and point blank refuses to even consider it with the kids.

'DH is way too middle class to ever have been and point blank refuses to even consider it with the kids.'

Sell

You need to get him out of that MC comfort zone, I think everyone should experience this

Absolutely love reading all these recollections.

I think if I'd you tubed Steeplechase I wouldn't have mounted those slithery mounts....

If anyone’s feeling nostalgic, here’s a tip: you can do a Clubcard Boost on Pleasure Beach wristbands. I do one most summers for a day out with the kids.

Not been on the Pleasure Beach for years - this thread just made me look at a map and it's all changed!

I can't believe you have to pay to just walk around. We used to go as a tribe when I was little and I was the only one going on the rides. Now it's £10 just to walk around. Wow!

The abandoned theme parks are so creepy but really interesting. You can get lost in a hole reading about them. Crinkly Bottom based on Noel's House Party looks like the stuff of nightmares

The Fun house
m.youtube.com/watch?v=J6GX4UPCq_k

@LunaAzul I have fond memories of going to Camelot theme park almost every year and seeing the photos of it all abandoned and decaying is quite disturbing, saddening but bloody fascinating too! I love a good nosey through the pics.

Oh pie

What a fab clip

I only went in once in the early 80's and remember thinking it was like the Shaky Shack In Grease

I used to go to Dreamland in Margate in the 70's/80's, the roller coaster felt so rickety and unsafe. I haven't been on one since.

The Steeple chafe looks scary! I wonder if anyone has ever fallen off.

Our local travelling fair used to have something that was like a big barrel, you stood against the wall and it spun. The centrifugal force pinned you to the wall and the floor dropped away?

There's another one here about Lost rides
m.youtube.com/watch?v=fulqw-DUApA

@piekebab - that thing about the monkeys ignited a deep-seated memory in me! I'm sure my nanna used to talk about that.

I am terrified on the rocket thing which goes really high and you feel like you will fall out. Bobby Seagull and Eric Monkman visited it and explained that you won’t fall out because of physics. It’s been around since Victorian times. My dm talks about going on The Whip when she was a girl. I love the Carousel. I remember loving it as a child and it feels amazing to have been on there with my own dc.

I spent lots of time at the pleasure beach as a kid (granny in st Anne's)

Does anyone remember a ride which was a revolving room? You sat still but the room revolved around you....

That laughing clown is still there we went last year!

Pie that is a great clip.

I remember going to the FH with my brother loads of times. The spinning disk thing that flung you off as it got faster and faster makes me nauseous just thinking about it now. I remember going to the cafe in the corner and sharing a pint of orange squash as it always got so hot.

We used to spend hours just wandering around the park on our own. The carousel horses seems huge and it was always a struggle to hold on.

We always tried to go in separate cars on the grand national and 'race' each other. The cat and mouse ride was the scariest as you always thought the car would come off the rails at the corners.

Went to the skating rink for my very first date and ended up in a&e with my friend who had the edge of her finger sliced off. Double date disaster!

Twitter I think the Haunted swing used to stand alone? But is now at the end of a walk through spectacle type attraction.

The room appears to spin around on that.

I need to settle down in a bit with my cuppa and watch pies clips properly, so I can enjoy them.

There's a new coaster coming, "Icon", hope it's good.

Icon is a year old! It's brilliant

@Bezalelle - my dh said it was a building on a hill, like an observatory place where they lived

They're great clips, Pie. The fun house one is SO nostalgic - like time-travel. Thank you.

I'm sure Morecambe had a dolphin pool on the front

It did. Marineland. I remember it well.

ukdolphinaria.blogspot.com/2015/07/marineland-morecambe-1964-1990.html