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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think Blackpool is a bit shit

683 replies

Cutitup · 23/07/2013 20:55

Just came back from Blackpool and it was utter shit. Why haven't the council there made improvements and made it a decent place to visit?

There is hardly anywhere halfway reasonable to eat, it looks completely broken and unloved. There is just so much potential for development and it could be the "Orlando" of England. Instead, it's just shite.

I've come away thinking I don't need to take my children to Africa to appreciate what they've got: just take them to Blackpool.

On a good note, the beach is very nice. Shame about the drunks weeing all over the stairs to the beach and leaving beer cans everywhere. I saw broken Britain in Blackpool and I shall never go back again.

OP posts:
tanfastic · 26/07/2013 11:01

A night out in Bolton town centre....gives Blackpool a run for its money.

orangeandemons · 26/07/2013 11:08

Marmalade, I have to know this.

We're the rug munchers taking it I turns or were they grazing off the same smorgasbord as it were simultaneously? Did other people notice?

ComposHat · 26/07/2013 11:14

grazing off the same smorgasbord! !!!!!!!!!!

brilliant!

FunnyLittleFrog · 26/07/2013 11:32

Been on two hen nights in Blackpool - both friend-of-a-friend, didn't really know the bride to be. Coach home both times so thankfully no stay at Uncle Brian's.

The first time we went in a bar at 2pm and there was a live strip show going on with actual ping pong balls flying around the place. When we left a pair of pissed-up lads tried to sell me a lighter for £10 then one vommed right in front of me. My friend (unhappily engaged at the time) snogged a variety of men and refused to leave the nightclub under the Tower because she had apparently found the love of her life... must have been around 5pm by then. Ate in KFC and as we were leaving there was a fight outside and one of the windows was smashed. Spent the night in a few vile bars. In one a man grabbed my hand and rubbed it against his crotch - I turned round and told him to fuck off, luckily he did.

The second time we went to Funny Girls and had an amazing time. Completely different and a brilliant laugh.

tanfastic · 26/07/2013 11:42

Funny you went to the Tower Lounge which is notorious in Blackpool....and the KFC outside Confused

You'd have to pay me to go to either of those places Grin

catgirl1976 · 26/07/2013 12:02

The Tower Lounge is the 7th circle of hell

I have seen vomiting people being ejected forcibly from there when walking past in the afternoon

I once went to Heaven and Hell in Blackpool. For me the night was summed up when the DJ announced over the tannoy "Could pregnant women please not dance on the pole podium."

FunnyLittleFrog · 26/07/2013 12:17

When we went in I think we were under the impression the Tower Lounge was the Tower Ballroom... expected waltzing and a Wurlitzer!

mrstigs · 26/07/2013 13:47

We tried to go on a day trip to Blackpool once.
We got there, parked up and walked most of the way to the seafront.
That was enough.

We quickly walked back, got back in the car and drove to Filey instead. From then on we stuck with the east coast.
Grin

cheerfulweather · 26/07/2013 14:09

What are Fleetwood and Cleveleys like nowadays? They were quieter, and cleaner, than Blackpool, I think I recall.

I don't think Blackpool was always so terrible. It seemed better, slightly less run down, when they had the Labour conferences there, though that would have been over 20 years ago. Not somewhere I'd choose to go, sadly.

GrimmaTheNome · 26/07/2013 16:15

Hum well... Tell you what I've never understood round there, the caravan site right next to the chemical works (what's left of it) on the Wyre estuary.

BeerTricksPotter · 26/07/2013 16:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GrimmaTheNome · 26/07/2013 17:11

No, on the wyre by the big ex-ICI chemical site. Right next to part that's still working.

I actually quite like Skippool Creek, with all the boats - it has character. Grin

BTW, there's lots of good places for birdwatching walks along the coast round there.

BeerTricksPotter · 26/07/2013 17:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

alythamperson · 26/07/2013 17:26

Blackpool was always a bit rough, a very working class resort but it's much more depraved and deprived than years ago. Surprisingly perhaps, Lytham St. Anne's seems to be thriving unlike many small seaside towns. Sitting outside one of the nicer hotels with a latte and fruit skewers in the sun right now on a gorgeous terrace and it is a world away from Blackpool.

treaclesoda · 26/07/2013 17:33

I've only ever seen it on TV but it looks spectacularly unappealing to me.

Then again, I'm aware as I type this that something like 150,000 people live there, and I hate the thought of telling someone that they live somewhere crap, it seems so mean. Because I bet that even if all 150,000 of them think its horrible, they still probably don't want outsiders telling them its crap Wink

theboob · 26/07/2013 18:40

Hummm
I have grown up and still live in Blackpool .I know the areas to avoid , only last weekend I had to walk my 3 year old through crowds of drunken 50 year old womwn in mini skirts at 6pm .I would normally avoid the bars behind the tower but she was dancing in a show in the ballroom .
I take my children to St Annes beach and enjoy the areas away from the stag and hens .
I'm not denying there is deprivation as I'm a nurse and have seen every side of it in the hoapital and community , but I do love where I live and I have seen worse places tbh

moustachio · 26/07/2013 18:49

slightly trivial observation was how old the prizes were. There were shrek and rugrats toys in the grabber machines... seriously wtf. I don't think either of those have had anything massive out in a very long time.

Fleetwood is a nice beach, quite quiet. I went a few years ago cheerful weather. There's a few awful greasy spoon cafes near by that were RAMMED. I couldn't believe it, the food was greasy and awful but we had to queue to get in!

Haven't read the whole thread but i did a project at uni on the 'improvements' they've made to the sea defences, incorporating entertainment and leisure into the sea wall. The steps protect the coast and give tourists somewhere to sit. Obviously for got to include the regenration of the area in the plan.

I went about 2 weeks ago (my family love it for some reason....) and a 5 year old walked into my cousin. My cousin apologized (wasn't his fault) but the other kids dad told my 4 year old cousin that he was going to beat the shit out of him. Cue entire family, complete with 50 children and england shirts screaming at my family. We pretty much ran away from them. It was horrific :(

LauraPashley · 26/07/2013 20:28

Funny girls!! That was it! Brilliant, I really enjoyed it in there! Does it still exist?

BeerTricksPotter · 26/07/2013 20:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

catgirl1976 · 26/07/2013 21:06

Funny Girls is still going strong :)

LauraPashley · 26/07/2013 22:14

Glad to hear it!! Is it actually quite good or was I really, really drunk?!

catgirl1976 · 26/07/2013 22:24

It's great :)

lawner · 26/07/2013 22:32

We went a couple of years ago. I'd never been before but DH did several times as a child. He said it's a bit tongue in cheek downmarket, but 'cheap and cheerful', and a lot of fun.

I honestly didn't like it at all. It was very dirty and a couple of men (drunk?) made inappropriate gestures at me, in broad daylight, and I had four year old DD with me. Unfortunately DH thought had gone very downhill and used the word "seedy" a lot. We walked along the promenade, to the Pleasure Beach, then got the tram back. It wasn't much fun. The horses were pulling carriages and looked overworked and overheated. The pavement reeked of their urine.

I don't know what the illuminations are like, but I wouldn't go back in the daytime.

pamish · 26/07/2013 22:37

Has anyone ever seen a vegetable there? Or even eeek - salad?

I used to go to cover the party conferences. Eating is a problem, especially if you're veggy. Solved it in the end by eating in Indian restaurants which do have proper food, dunno how they managed to import it. Perhaps they get sent food parcels from overseas.

FunnyLittleFrog · 26/07/2013 22:39

Funny Girls is actually amazing and probably the best thing in Blackpool, that and the River Caves ride at the Pleasure Beach.

Lawner - if you didn't like it in the daytime you really ought not to go back at night!