Blackpool - has it always been like this or do I have rose-tinted specs?

[AbsolutelyZero]

When we were kids in the 80s we visited Blackpool several times for day trips and had one week long holiday there. We stayed in one of the Guesthouses, which was well kept, and I have really good memories of how amazing the town seemed (to a kid).

I also visited as an adult for a work-related event in 2002, stayed for a couple of days and from what I remember it all seemed the same - a bit faded but great fish and chips, nice people. Less impressive as an adult but that’s inevitable.

I visited again recently on a bit of a whim and I was speechless. There’s clearly been some money spent on the promenade and that looks good but go one street back and I’ve honestly never seen anything like it - every house looks like the apocalypse just happened, literally falling to bits, rubbish and mess everywhere. All the Guesthouses seem to have gone, taken over by what look like horrible, run down HMOs. The walk from the car park to the front was unnerving, to put it mildly. Saw a fairly blatant drug deal en route too. The worst deprivation I’ve seen in the UK.

I’m assuming it hasn’t always been like this and I’ve just been oblivious - the last two decades must have hit really hard.

Anyone had the same experience?

We live in Lytham and I’m always shocked when I go through those bits you’re talking about. However a bit further down the prom as you come way from the centre there’s literally some of the most amazing houses behind the prom with really individual architecture but sadly even these are not maintained or looked after. They really are faded grandeur and still putting all these new build houses to shame.

So sad and hope it gets the investment it needs. I was on a course recently and whilst it's a nice ish walk along the promenade if you normally don't live near the sea, a couple of streets back and it's quite sad. I parked my car and was genuinely unsure if it would be there when I got back. The hotels were literally crumbling down and many advertised dubious looking ' party nights'. So many folk on ebikes with balaclavas too. I read somewhere it has large numbers of children's homes too.

We have been going for 10 years and it has been like that.

we always stay in hotel in Preston and drive in for the day and go back afterwards so stay away from the back streets. Pleasure beach is still fun for kids.

the area just need a massive amount of investment but not sure what it would be for. The location is awkward for the rest of the country and Manchester and leeds have sucked up all the major investment.

It’s one of the most deprived areas in the UK with one of the poorest councils.

It's been going downhill for a long time sadly. I went a few months ago and was shocked at the state of a couple of the horses pulling carriages up and down the promenade. One was clearly lame with a pronounced limp and really looked to be struggling, it was horrible to see.

It's always been awful. The water quality and the illuminations have improved over the years, but it's horrible and run down. Horrible place.

Same here we went often as children gteat memories, went for a weekend last year and saw 2 people arrested within 10 minutes of arriving. Seemed to be lot of alcohol/drug problems and as you say really run down soon as you are off the main promenade

There’s a reason residents of Lytham don’t want the tram line extended to them!

Allegedly some unsavoury characters are also housed in the area after their release from prison. It’s had a transient population for quite a few years now. Spice and drug/alcohol abuse is rife. I think Blackpool might have one of the lowest life expectancies in the UK as well.

The disappearance of Charlene Downes remains unsolved and this certainly cast a shadow over its family friendly image.

I grew up not far from WB but live in the south now (would much prefer to be back north but not in a position to move atm). I was really confused when a friend started talking about wanting to go on holiday there as I remember it being fairly rough and run down in the 90s and early 00s.

Re Blackpool, we used to holiday there in the 90s. It wasn’t great then, and the guesthouses we stayed in weren’t nice at all. Shared toilet in the corridor complete with shiny toilet paper, everywhere smelt like a combination of smoke and damp and I vividly remember seeing a bedbug crawling across my (damp) sheet. I liked the arcades though.

The landlady for one of the guesthouses we stayed in had a blue rinse. Whatever happened to those?

I was like you, we used to go for day trips in the 80's and I've been to the pleasure beach as a teen / young adult which would have been mid 90's. Went back a few years ago and I was gobsmacked at the state of the place and the people. It's a real shame but I guess the tourist industry can't compete with overseas and there's not a lot else around to provide employment opportunities.

They do All Inclusive breaks that attract the Benidorm holidaymakers. Grim

I used to go as a kid and loved it -I have fond memories of the lights

Went back with an ex boyfriend years later (2016 ish) and was shocked

We checked in and went for a walk

Half an hour later we saw was an old bloke sat on the beach (he must have been in his 80's) and a young woman (must have been in her 20's) was giving him a bj-in full view of anyone walking past

This would have been about 6pm ish

It was filthy and not much to see-it seemed to be in decay

I was shocked at some of the knives (they looked like Edward scissorhands) they sold in shops on the seafront next to the kids keyrings and teddies

We did the pleasure Beach and the tower but after that,there was nothing much left

I'm in no rush to go back

Blackpool has the lowest life expectancy in England

https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/people/new-official-figures-show-blackpool-has-the-lowest-life-expectancy-in-the-uk-4237105

Blackpool is often listed as one of the most deprived areas in the country. I grew up there and it is absolutely horrible - always has been. There have always been seasonal workers and a seedy atmosphere. The issues with drugs are not new but just more obvious after decades of cuts.

Round Stanley Park is nicer but it is a town that is past it's heyday and not attractive as a commuter area to a more prosperous area or city.

I was there with my friend in 2014. I also went on childhood hols and loved it. Can still smell the guesthouse we stayed in (good smell). FF 40 years. It's a hole. It was dirty, vomit on the streets.....didn't feel very safe. Wouldn't go back lol.

We used to go in the late 70's and early 80's, its around 1.5 hours from us and I had many happy memories so I was excited to take my own DC.
It was bloody awful, you even have to pay just to get into The Pleasure Beach now. We live in a "gritty" Northern town so I am not shocked by anything other than leafy suburbs but the place was a total shithole.
A friend is very high up in Safeguarding for our local Council and when the choir both our girls were in proposed a trip to Blackpool she said that there was no way she would allow her daughter to go as she knew that it was a Hot spot or Paedophiles. I would normally write that off as hysteria but this woman had actual info not just rumour and suposition - of course she didn't share any specific details with me but what she told me was enough to not let DD go on the trip either.

So many people have tried and failed to sort out inner Blackpool and failed over the years. One reason is that it needs money invested in housing, education, healthcare and industry, and that needs looking at in the round. Unfortunately previous governments have had different priorities so it might get a new college one term, a health centre or two the next parliament, and so on. Those prop things up for a bit longer but don't actually do anything to fix the root causes. I had to go for work last summer and we walked past two men smoking crack in a doorway at 3pm in the afternoon. Even their best chippy (Yorkshire Fisheries) near the Tower closed at 7pm on a beautiful midsummer evening. A chippy in a seaside resort in the summer shouldn't be closing at that time.

This is the same for a lot of sea side towns around the country, unfortunately.

Which town are you referring to?

We went for a few weekends away there in 2000s for partying mostly and it was full of stag and hens and party town. Bars and clubs everywhere and all packed out. You'll still get some of that.

It hasn't got the same spirit now and a lot of the clubs have gone.

It's the type of place that suffers social problems more than most as well. 90s and 00s more of a happy time.

what's grim about AI? ( asking someone who obviously hasn't a clue and is trotting out the beery brits abroad line- so snobbish and wrong)

Morecambe seems to be coming out of the other side … it’s getting investment in there.
Still has “seaside town issues” but a more pleasant day out (even better when The Eden Project arrives)

Blackpools big issues is that, for decades, it was run by 2 families, who were interested in making money, not infrastructure.

We went to see the lights. The Tower was closed, no shows anywhere. Lights were not as spectacular as 10 years ago.
Big hotel on the sea side of the prom is a run down migrant hostel. Not attractive.
Classiest place we found was Wetherspoons. Says it all

Out of curiosity, Layton Rakes, Velvet Coaster or Albert & the Lion 😂

Surely there’s a good income to be had with all the dancing competitions? Many international competitions held there, of all levels and styles, surely it’s in the best interest of the council to clean the place up??