To think Blackpool might be best left in my memories?

[Lovethissweater]

About 20 years ago I went to Blackpool as a teenager.

We spent a few days there and did the Sandcastle waterpark, the Tower and circus, the Pleasure beach, Madame Tussaud's, we rode the trams and went in the arcades. It was tacky but fun and I don't remember it being that rough or run down, but I probably wouldn't have noticed as a teenager.

Every now and then I think "I bet my kids would love Blackpool", they'd love the tower and the waterpark, then I google the place and read how everyone says it's an utter dive and run down, really rough and full of drinks and addicts and I think perhaps it's better I leave Blackpool as a nice memory in the past!

This thread is just shitting all over Blackpool !
I won’t have it !
There’s a lot of good kitsch fun to be had in Blackpool still. Mad sticks of rock in lurid colours.
Tinsel wigs! Tea and cakes in the tower ballroom, watching all sorts of eccentric characters swirl around to the wurlitzer. The sticky carpeted pier with a mountain of loose change... fish and chips... a walk along the front... the illuminations...
all good fun!

If I didn't have to visit once a year I would never go back, fills me with dread each time. Like other pp's said stick to the front if you go, and I wouldn't go out in the evening. We stay in our hotel and get food in. Personally think there are far better attractions else where, but each to their own I guess.

I really want to watch a channel 5 documentary about mumsnetters forced to spend a week in Blackpool 😂

I saw a dead body there.
Dreadful place.

Yeah, The streets of Blackpool are littered with dead bodies, us locals you literally have to step over them just to get into the pubs so we can start a naked fight before pissing and puking on the tramps on the way home to take our drugs .....

Oh dear! We had a couple of holidays there when I was a child and I used to live it. So much to do.

We went for a long weekend about 20 years ago when DD was small and mostly it was OK. We stayed in a family oriented hotel that was on the outskirts and didn't see anything too shocking. Enjoyed Stanley Park, the zoo and the Pleasure Beach but was disappointed that you couldn't just go up the Tower as I remember doing as a child but had to buy a ticket for the whole shebang which we didn't want to do.

From what I have read here and elsewhere though it sounds grim. What theories for why that is?

It’s very grim and a massive shithole.
People pissed and vomiting in the day, run down, tacky. Loads of stag/hen parties.

I’ve never seen sights like it and won’t ever return. I have no idea why anyone would want to go there. Just awful. I don’t know how anyone with eyes can say it’s a nice place. Maybe young kids wouldn’t notice but there are so many other, much nicer places you could take them.

I want to go there. And I do!
I love mad colours and kitsch. Love lurid nightclubs with broken neon signage and swirly carpets. I love seeing the people that have visited for decades , old couples that stroll along the seafront hand in hand, who’ve done so for years and always will. I adore the tackyness, the grime, the depressed bad drag acts that do the same circuit they’ve done since the 80s.
Love seeing the kids with giant sticks of candy floss and those massive red candy dummies that get all covered in fluff and hair and make you car sick on the journey home . Doughnuts.. hot dogs.
I can’t get enough

My mum and aunty used to go every year on an OAP holiday. They used to like it then one time my aunty was hit on the head with an inflatable penis and they never went back.

It’s not just kitsch though, that would be fine.!It has a very seedy feel to it. Old couples strolling along hand in hand! As if!

It’s incredibly seedy too, of course

But there are plenty of old couples who do visit every year. They stay loyal to a few select hotels and most have been going for such a long time they time their visit to collide with Brenda and Jack from Norwich or whoever they met in 1975 or whatever. It’s quite sweet. And they still dance around the ballroom and dine out in their fancy clothes at night, seemingly oblivious to the social changes in Blackpool. I like that.

My sister lives fairly close, and works in one of the hotels. She wouldn't recommend the hotel she works in for families because it's mostly full of stag and hen do's. There are plenty of family hotels around though, at the bispham end, or stay further out and just come into the town for the attractions. I took dd and dn to the Sandcastle a year or so ago and we enjoyed it, spent the whole day there. Dd and I had a lovely couple of days doing the tower (including the circus), sea life centre, Madame Tussauds, the beach, and strolling along the prom and the piers. I think we went to Stanley park as well. It was fun, in a cheap and tacky way. We stayed in a caravan park, so out of town. I did go into the main town a couple of times and it's incredibly run down.

I say go, but stay out of the town centre. Stick to the prom and the main attractions and it's cheap and cheerful seaside fun.

Funnily enough I’ve seen loads of old couples strolling hand in hand in the summer, seen more of them than people pissing or vomiting in the streets.

Blackpool isn’t everyone’s cup of tea as a holiday destination and it could certainly do with a lick of paint in places, but it doesn’t deserve the abuse it gets. Every couple of months someone starts a Blackpool bashing thread on here.

It’s like people are unable to accept that anyone can like Blackpool. And then they assume that if we do like it it’s because we can’t see the problems for ourselves. These are the same people that take holidays in Naples etc and wax lyrical about the authenticity and grit when they come home.
Yes . Blackpool has some massive issues.
Also, some massive charm.

Well, I too grew up there and also used to fiercely defend it. Then I moved elsewhere. When I moved back, I realised that Blackpool has such an awful seedy undercurrent that you must dont get in most other places. It feels menacing.

I finally got my mum to.leave there and after living away for 7 years, she too can't believe what a dump it is when she goes back, and is amazed she didn't notice at the time.

There is a huge homeless problem there, massive drug problems, extreme social deprivation, and yes, I have seen plenty of vomit and piss in the streets over the years.

If you live there and never go where the tourists go, you probably wouldn't see it all, but so used to work in the tourist places and it's horrific.

I took my DD for.the day for the illuminatioms last year. I wont be taking her again.

Thing is I didn’t grow up here and I’ve lived in several different towns and cities over the years. My hometown of Newcastle gets more stag and hen dos than Blackpool and I’ve seen more fights and vomiting in the street on a night out there but I still wouldn’t call it a shithole though as this is just a small part of the city. I’ve seen substantially more homelessness in Manchester and London, again wouldn’t call them shitholes despite this. Blackpool is the easy target for people to criticise and feel superior. It needs rejuvenating (which the council are in the process of doing) and some of the run down B&Bs definitely need a lick of paint (or bulldozing) but it’s not a shithole anymore than any other place. It has it shit elements as well as it’s nice ones, same as everywhere else.

I didn’t grow up there either.
And I don’t live there.

Take that image you have of Blackpool then imagine NOTHING changed over the past 20 years Dirt, grime and decay take over......and that's what it's like now.

I used to go as a child every year for the illuminations and LOVED it. Went back last year with the kids for a weekend - NEVER AGAIN.

It was full of scary looking people in string vests. People drinking on the streets in broad daylight. Swearing. Bars offering "2 for one cocktails and free soft play for the kids". Shady looking bouncers on guard at bar entrances all hours.

The B&B was DISGUSTING and I had the stress of (a) demanding my money back (which I got) then (b) finding alternative accommodation with acceptable hygiene levels.

It's a complete and utter dive. AVOID!

Where’s the bar with the free soft play? That’s a new one to add to the list!

hmmm this thread is making me really excited about my 2 nights in Blackpool this summer with the dc's - not!

Can you actually still buy string vests??? I’ve never seen anyone in a string vest in any town ever ..... did they have flat caps and whippets with them aswell?

I genuinely didn’t see any of the vomit, drunk people in string vests etc when we last visited! Or maybe I have rose tinted vision

We went in very early July, most of our fellow hotel guests were Scottish families or elderly people. It was all very pleasant. While some parts certainly needed a lick of paint, I absolutely loved it!

The rides are great. One year I took my teenage kids to Alton Towers - I had to pay even though I didn't go on any rides. They went on about four rides each because of the queues. I then took them to Blackpool and they went on dozens of rides - no queues and they were able to go on as many as they want. They had a great time.

@mollypuss1

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g186332-d4260358-r172050779-Manchester-Blackpool_Lancashire_England.html

FYI it looked super sketchy as did their bouncers!

Some trip advisor photographs capture its “essence” perfectly.