To think Blackpool is a bit shit

[Cutitup]

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.

Bill Bryson mentions surfing on pools of vomit in 'Notes From a Small Island' iirc.

My BIL once visited Blackpool for reasons he can't remember now, and on a whim walked to the end of the North Pier, only to find the youngest of The Nolan Sisters was performing in her own sad show.

Sums it up I feel.

I absolutely hated working in Blackpool. The complete lack of any suitable jobs meant taking jobs in some of the biggest dives known to humanity full of very odd jealous people with an obsession for trying to get one over on you and trying to drag you down to their level. The last horrendous company I worked for (think League of Gentlemen but worse) was the final straw and I swore I would never work in Blackpool again. It did give me the kick I needed to get out of there and go back to university to do my Masters Degree though. And after living in Blackpool, living in the middle of a forest in North Wales is like heaven.

Ha, yes, sounds about right! I once saw The Grumbleweeds and the Roly Polys there ... likewise, reasons escape me! "Surfing on pools of vomit" is absolutely accurate ... I've heard Blackpool is now twinned with Beirut.

I used to love the Pleasure Beach but now there's an admission fee whether you go on a ride or not and you can't take sandwiches in with you so you have to pay their exuberant prices in their cafes.

Blackpool has for a very long time catered mostly to what makes the most money, which since people started going to benidorm, are stag and hen dos. The council has been trying to improve things and the prom looks really nice now. There is plenty to do as a family but there is no divide between the drinkers and the day trippers. Once it gets to the late afternoon I think the atmosphere changes as more and more groups of drinkers emerge from the cheap hotels. Added to that the social deprivation of many of the people who live there and a council will be fighting a losing battle to get improvement.

Mobility scooters seem to be the new thing in Blackpool. The town centre is awash with them.

My sole happy memory of Blackpool is the Steeplechase ride! Apart from that it is a total deep-fried, piss stained, drunken knocking shop with donkeys (and sewage).

The wedding chapel on the promenade is actually a giant anvil God threw at Blackpool in horror, proclaiming "the whole place is Looney Tunes".

thefuture

I agree with you, and I live in Blackpool but I'm one of the Looney Toons so like it here

Haha, thanks! I escaped and moved to the country, went back to university and now live in the middle of a forest, it was the best thing I ever did Blackpool just makes my head hurt, I am probably too old fashioned for it

It's as common as muck! Always has been.

Absolutely! It just seemed to be getting worse and worse before I left. Without meaning to sound awful, I often found myself cringing into shapes previously only thought possible by a contortionist. Nature, trees, etc are wonderful things, I don't understand Blackpool at all. It is nice, for example, not to hear that awful sound of chavs gobbing on pavements like they are trying to remove a giant fur-ball, language that Bernard Manning would have been ashamed to have been associated with or the wailing sirens of police cars which seemed to have been appropriated as an alternative taxi service.

Op, fuck off

We take the kids to Blackpool on holiday every couple of years and they love it. We've never seen the stag or hen parties mentioned, and mostly the town looks pretty clean actually. No more litter than our home town, and I don't remember ever seeing any vomit.

The new promenade is fantastic. Good on the council for making the investment - the comedy carpet is amazing. The poor piers are looking a bit shabby in comparison though, especially the North Pier, so I hope they raise enough to do it up in the next few years.

I agree that the Tower is now a rip-off. Such a shame as it used to be fantastic value and really worth a visit. Now we skip the rest of the tower and just go to the circus when we're there.

I agree about the new promenade and comedy carpet. It has smartened the front up a lot.

i loved blackpool, everyone was really friendly when i went 5 odd years ago, however worse food ever there, everything is bland. i had a vindaloo which tasted like a korma, nasty pizza, nasty roast dinner, other than that loved it maybe it has changed now.

Obviously Blackpool is a long way from Whitstable, but I think it has a certain mad sort of magicabout it. Where else would you find a Conspiracy 'Museum'? And it's nice to go to an English seaside resort that isn't either dying on its feet, or annoyingly twee.

I appreciate it is a good holiday destination for some, otherwise people wouldn't visit, but there seems to be a big difference between visiting Blackpool and living there. Personal opinion but I always found Blackpool to have a very dark and oppressive atmosphere. The job market there is particularly dire with just very unsuitable low paid jobs. Inadvertently though, Blackpool helped me in that my other half and we got that fed up of the place that we started our own business, much by accident at first just to make some money. We made more money in the first week than I did in two months in my last particularly awful job there, which then meant we could get out of there, carry on with our business elsewhere and I could go back to university. Necessity is the mother of invention. I will never forget having to briefly, and rather embarrassingly, sign on and go to the job centre and getting on the wrong side of a woman working there who said to me, "There are jobs here if you look, I know Burger King are taking on". My reply to this suggestion was that I would rather contract Ebola ... This was viewed particularly unfavorably. I feel this sums up the job market there.

"My other half and I" rather ... whoops!

The biggest travesty is that Blackpool could be great. It really could. If only the government invested in it. It has potential and nice beaches.

St Annes however is lovely!

St. Annes is lovely. I was brought up in the other direction out of Blackpool, Rossall, the 'posh' bit ... the upbringing that caused so many problems in Blackpool.

there are some really nice house in St Annes too we were there on sunday lovely big houses.

Blackpool is what it is. I actually agree with the dark and oppressive atmosphere but that's what it does. It is nasty fried food and tat and the underbelly of life covered in glitter.