To ask what's wrong with Blackpool?

[Allnostalgic]

There have been a few threads about Blackpool lately. I haven't been to Blackpool for at least 20 years. From what I can remember it was ok but then I was a teenager.

I have been tempted to go back to see what it's all about but always see it described as being hellish. I know it's a deprived part of the country but is it really that bad? What's actually bad about it?

I go for the Pleasure Beach every year. Never seen anything dodgy.

We have not long been back from a long weekend during which we travelled into Blackpool

It is what it is a British seaside town with areas of poverty - however we live in the North East which also has some of the same.

Visited the zoo, tower, piers, park and amusements and had a walk on the beach. Usual British seaside kind of feel, tacky parts but no real issues.

We parked a few streets back and spent from 2pm until 8pm in the area. Never had any issues with drinkers, drug users or violence even when walking back to collect the car. It does and will happen, same as with many areas but despite visiting yearly have never encountered any issues to a level mentioned on here.

We went last year and honestly it’s just totally filthy, litter absolutely everywhere and even worse on the beach. Lots of beggars about too and overpriced tat for sale on the streets. However for things to do, it’s excellent - the kids loved it and we were never ever bored.

AyeUpMeDuck · 22/06/2022 17:10
The beach and the front are nice.

But get a few streets back from them and it's deprivation and poverty and desperation.

It's been that way since I was going there in the 90s.“

this. Live a few miles away. Avoid it because it makes me very sad.

Just avoid the weekends you see that behaviour anywhere. I remember being about 10 we were on holiday in Spain a part which is popular with families not boozy nights out. Walking past a park and heard what I thought was animal noises and seen a couple rocking. My mum interrupted them and shouted you dirty buggers. We asked what they were doing she just said nothing and wouldn’t talk about it again.😂😂😂

That was our experience too, men and women urinating in the street in the middle of the day, except I didn’t see many Police. There was fight and one of the men involved fell on my toddler in her pushchair as we were trying to move away. She screamed and he looked at her and told her too fuck off. It was horrible and we went home early. It’s definitely the worst place I’ve been to in England and I would never go back. Shit hole full of scummy people, I feel sorry for anyone decent living there who would like to get away.

to not too

I must admit I do love the pleasure beach The sandcastle and the front. So do my kids loads moaned when they stopped free entry to the pleasure beach. But actually think it’s better they did that. It keeps the people they don’t want coming in out. We go to a theme park we have to pay to go in. Blackpool is the only one that does it the park passes for those not wanting to go on the rides like grandparents. But they can still ride on the train if they wish. Some of the roller coasters are old and rickety. But icon and Valhalla is fab it’s worth going for them.

Britain is one of the only places where it looks like an active decision has been made to make beachfront areas look like shit.

Travel across Europe and apart from the known shitty places like Tenerife, beach areas don’t put cheap tacky pubs like ‘Spoons, ‘amusement’ arcades and cheap gift shops in a row across the most prominent locations. Nor do they bus in loads of recently released criminals including peado’s to live in half way houses with sea views.

Britain is even going one better now by pumping the sea with sewage. In the league tables for this behaviour, Blackpool has an AA+ though.

@Mumandcarer if you plan another trip to the Pleasure Beach worth noting that the passes for non riders have been scrapped since the pandemic, and the ticket prices have gone up, not sure anyone knows when Valhalla will reopen either 🤣

If people can afford drugs it's not as deprived as I thought.

It’s not my cuppa but it is what it’s advertised as and a lot of people love it.

The reason I won’t go with my DC is that DD used to be a member of a club that one year proposed a trip to Blackpool. DDs had a friend there and when I asked the friend if her DD was going she said there wasn’t a chance in Hell her child would be going to Blackpool without her and under very close supervision. This lady was head of safeguarding at our local council (about a hour from Blackpool), she said she didn’t want to say too much but due to her job she felt that Blackpool was unsafe for unaccompanied or unsupervised children. I have no idea if it’s true but it did worry me and DD didn’t go either. I got the impression that some of the lower end B&Bs are used to house ex offenders or people on bail, plus men with an unhealthy interest in children see places like Blackpool as a good place to be!
I am not someone who is overly paranoid about these things but this lady was very firm that Blackpool wasn’t safe and she was in a position to know.

The last time I was there was about 15 years ago. After checking into the worst hotel I have ever stayed in, I opened the room curtains to witness a drug deal in the back alley it overlooked. It was generally very run down, tacky in a cheap way rather than charming, just very grim. Maybe it’s changed in the meantime.

Oh god, I really didn’t. Feel awful now. I thought it was just a jokey dig.

Apologies

Ah don't worry, I didn't think you knew where it had come from.

I wasn't going to say anything for that reason but I felt I needed to say something as the story is tragic. It does have an upbeat tune so unless you were an 'older' rival fan then you probably wouldn't know.

Don't feel awful

All these posts talking about how awful it is, what a hovel, how it’s full of disgusting people who are scum and drug takers and all that shit are just so fucking ignorant. You think that the strip of promenade and a few back streets is the whole of Blackpool when there’s a whole bloody town of people just living their lives, being regular people, living in nice areas with good schools and amenities.

I was born and grew up in Blackpool. I moved down to London at 18 and also lived in Brighton. There’s literally nothing I’ve seen in Blackpool that I’ve not seen in London or Brighton. It’s just ignorant to make out like Blackpool is this den of poverty and scummy behaviour.

Let’s not forget in the summer, it’s the visitors that are largely part of the problem, acting like scum and doing whatever the fuck they like precisely because they are visiting. When I lived there, locals barely went near the sea front in the summer. We had bars and clubs where we had to prove our address to get in because they were for locals only. Locals by and large hated the massive influx of drunken behaviour all summer long but it’s trapped in its dependancy on the income the summer trade brings. It’s definitely not the locals staggering around the town centre drunk in the afternoon and pissing and fighting in the streets - it’s the tourists. So be precise in your scathing descriptions because it’s not Blackpool being like that - it’s people that come to Blackpool.

Well said!

Blackpool Zoo is great. No way would I venture into Blackpool itself these days. Hate it with a passion.
Hearing conflicting reports about B & B’s closing because no one is booking them, but a friend went last weekend and said she’s never seen it as busy. Maybe people are paying more to stay in a hotel rather than the cheap B& B’s.

I take my GC every year, we're booked for December. I stay on the North Pier. You get the rowdiness that you get across other busy/holiday places. I can be shopping in Liverpool city centre (where I live) and football fights start on match days. I've been regularly to Stratford-upon-Avon and the begging and drug dealing is shocking. I've been in London, last time Camden and seen stabbings. Blackpool has everything kids like, I prefer the zoo to Chester zoo. You've got to carefully pick your accommodation. We pay out and stay in an apartment with parking. But I've been in a few good B&Bs as well. London like a lot of cities is violent, dirty and has poor accommodation, but people love to slag off Blackpool.

But aren't most British seaside places the same these days?

Bournemouth - nice beaches but full of stag and hen dos
Brighton - way too expensive and overcrowded with more stags and hens
Great yarmouth - nothing great about, old, dilapidated, really needs some TLC
Hastings - OK down the front but a couple of streets back, you will see a bar fight spilling out on to the street
Herne Bay - so needs a lick of paint
Margate - ok-ish if you know where to go but not fabulous

Also everything said about Blackpool could be said about Paris, with a good deal of sexual harrasment and sexism thrown in.

What a spectacularly ignorant thing to say. Did it make you feel clever and witty to say that?

It's what you make of it and like another poster said the behaviour of people on stag do or hens parties is people who come to visit not locals!
We used to visit a lot as kids as we lived in Manchester and could do day trips. I've taken my kids to see the lights and they loved it. I will take them to the beach and to do some rides in the summer but only for a daytrip. There are some lovely aibnbs but it's more economical for ²àsus to just visit and not stay over.

As for the labels of deprivation, you see that in all seaside towns in the UK and every city has deprived areas.

Well said. As someone who also grew up in Blackpool I agree with every word of this.

@bringincrazyback yep. It's such a lovely place that you moved as soon as you became an adult 😂😂😂