Buying in Blackpool - Need advice.

[PatsyStone39]

I'll try to keep this short but I may go on a ramble as we are a bit tied in knots about what to do for the best.

So, my partner and I have spent the last 15 years either in the South East of England or living abroad. We are currently in a SE seaside town. But, we are fed up shelling out a damn fortune (£2000 a month) on rent.

We both love Blackpool and try to go a few times a year for a break. And, it's occurred to us we should move to where we are happy now there is no ties to a particular office. Blackpool ticks all our boxes.

But. The dilemma is where and which type of property. Whilst we know BP/the Fylde Coast from a holidaymaker's point of view, we would love some input from someone local.

We have seen an ex-guesthouse that has a lot of potential to be an amazing home after a renovation. It's in Central Blackpool and currently sandwiched been another guesthouse and a hotel. We love the idea of 3000sq ft of space and being able to have exactly what we want in terms of kitchen etc. Though a bit worried about the area and being terraced.

The alternative to this would be finding a detached in Bishpham, Thornton Cleveley's or St Anne's that we love and don't have to renovate - but more than double the price. (No properties currently fit the bill.)

Does anyone have any advice? Areas to avoid? Is buying an ex-guesthouse a moneypit? Is St Anne's worth the extra £.We also have a 2 year old, so schools will be a factor soon enough, too. Is Rossall as good a private school as it looks on paper?

Please someone come and reassure me we are doing the right thing! lol

we lived in blackpool guest house first then residential the guest houses are very old and ours had damp problems needed rewiring completely a lot of them still have lead plumbing and if its between two working hotels will be very noisy in the season as blackpool gets a lot of hen and stags nowadays , central is a nightmare for parking, we then sold it and moved to south shore near palatine senior school a decent area and the house was huge for a three bed, lounge seperate dining room big kitchen big garden two decent double beds and a reasonable sized three bed , loftus avenue was the street we lived in and it was a ten minute walk to the main part, a nice park five minute walk i liked living there

what we did when our house went under offer was went and stayed in blackpool for two weeks and looked at as many properties as we could in that time

Lots,of nice villages near Blackpool to consider. Wrea Green, Freckleton. Take a look at these. Might be cheaper than St. Anne’s.

Thanks, @isseys4xmastinselcats that's really helpful. The noise of being sandwiched between two hotels does worry me. One only operates 4 months a year and the other is a family hotel, no hens or stags. But still...what if they're sold in a few years and converted to flats? We have to think about things like that.

I've seen a new house come up today in South Shore. It's needing renovation again, but it's a Semi.

I think we're going to come up in March and rent for 6 months whilst we look and make a decision.

Do you like living in Blackpool?

@HildegardNightingale Thank you. I think i'll widen the search out a few miles. There's some lovely house's in the more rural areas. But, i've been in big cities all my life and I don't know if i'm suited to the country life.

hello ours was a semi but our neighbours were elderly at the time mine were the age to make the noise i dont live in Blackpool any more but did enjoy living there day to day was the same as living anywhere going to work etc but had the option of the beach too which was ten minutes walk from our house, the advantage of the outer bits of blackpool is its like living away from the 24 hours hustle and bustle but its right near home, the part near stanley park is very nice but higher prices and twenty minutes from town if you want it, you asked about rossall school it had a good reputation when i lived there cant remember the name of the other one but they are both good as far as i know

South shore and central drive are crime hotspots, full of drug dealers and lowlife
St annes is definitely worth the extra money
I live in st annes and hate going to Blackpool, it’s so different, it’s one of the most deprived areas in the country
Rossall is a very good school

I’m sorry but Blackpool is minging. We lived in that type of house in Morecambe as children and had no end of trouble with damp etc. It cost my parents a fortune to keep up with maintenance and never got properly renovated.

Lytham or St Anne’s is lovely, Wrea Green is very posh and expensive! Poulton-Le-Flyde is really nice too. Fleetwood and Thornton Cleveleys are pretty run down but do have some nice new build areas. Singleton is close to Blackpool too and Kirkham but neither are within walking distance of the sea. Knot End is further up but a lovely little sea side village.

Private schools wise Rossall is very good but AKS in Lytham has the best reputation. We didn’t like Kirkham Grammar School at all.

AKS is the better school, I agree
Actually, there isn’t a bad school in st annes or Lytham, we are very lucky

Avoid Central Blackpool. It’s a dive.

AKS is much better than Rossall, from personal experience. Rossall is non selective so academically not as great as AKS, plus much longer hours.

I personally do think St Annes is worth the extra money. Certainly compared with the centre of Blackpool. Central Drive, Palatine Road, Reads Avenue etc are all really quite dangerous places to live.

There are some parts of South Shore, nearer the airport on Squires Gate Lane, off Lytham Road (and indeed Lytham Road itself) that actually are good value for money and it’s not terribly rough. If you are looking for an ex guesthouse, try the Blackpool end of Clifton Drive leading to Squires Gate.

Equally, there are some ok parts of Bispham and good value for money property. Basically the further out of the centre of Blackpool you get, the better it is.

A private school kid living in a central Blackpool guest house is going to be like a fish out of water.

The Stanley Park area of Blackpool is nicer (South Park/North Park/East Park/West Park Drives etc, Knowledge Avenue, Kempton Avenue etc). There’s even some historic buildings around the Raikes Parade/Bryan Road area which are cheap as chips but full of character and I think they will eventually become a bit classier and up and coming.

Staining is nice and has a village feel, Poulton is nice too...even Normoss is alright and fairly cheap and certainly preferable to central Blackpool. Freckleton, Wrea Green etc are all fine too.

I just can’t emphasise how much I’d avoid the centre of Blackpool. And not just because I’m a Lytham snob. Just because it’s such an awful, unsafe and depressing place and nowhere to raise a child. It’s an area of extreme social deprivation, many of the most deprived wards in the whole U.K. fall within the centre of Blackpool.

I wouldn't live in Blackpool centre. Too noisy, too crowded, hard to get parking. I live to the north in Bispham in a 3 bed semi (though I'm actually looking to move anywhere from Fleetwood all the way up to Warton). Lived in the area all my life, previously lived in Thornton.

Lytham and St Anne's are the most expensive areas, followed by Poulton-le-Fylde and some houses around Stanley Park/Victoria Hospital, then Thornton and Cleveleys and Warton. For cheaper but still nice areas look at south shore close to the airport, Bispham, Fleetwood and North Shore close to Bispham.

FFS not Knowledge Avenue

KNOWLE Avenue (FY3).

Avoid central, very poor, crime is high, not a good area at all.
Blackpool is a great place to live, sea front is gorgeous, lovely rural areas within a short driving distance, major cities not far away (Manchester/Liverpool)
Bispham is lovely, Fleetwood I absolutely love, Thornton lovely, Poulton is expensive and quaint.
It’s a really smashing place to settle.

Agree with previous posters, avoid central Blackpool at all costs. I'm in Fleetwood and I love it here.

I didn’t realise that there’s so many mumsnetters on the false coast!

Fylde not false!

I just moved up here from Essex OP following my divorce. Although I love visiting Blackpool there is no way I'd want to live there on a daily basis. We moved to Poulton-le-Fylde, it's a lovely little town and all the primaries centrally are outstanding. Rossall not too far away. Like a previous OP I booked a week up here and visited lots of places to get a feel for the area. St Anne's is lovely but has a bit of a retired feel to it, if still live there with kids though. If your going to school DCs independently there are done amazing properties around Thornton / Cleveleys and Rossall not to far. Likewise Fleetwood, if directly on the shore.

Thanks, everyone. You've helped immensely and confirmed what I already knew. We are leaving the idea of central Blackpool behind and looking at Fleetwood, Cleaveley's, St Anne's and Lytham instead.

We are going to try and find a place to rent this week and come up Feb/March and start a proper house hunt them lockdown permitting.

Thank you for the school advice, also. My son is only little but my reasoning for the private school's was that the Central state ones didn't seem to fair very well. I guess that won't be a problem if we are on the outskirts, like St Anne's.

Poulton-le-fylde is fab for good schools both primary and Hodgson is a very good state secondary. Lovely little town centre but not too much to choose from in the way of shops. I love living here.

Can I suggest you join a few local Facebook groups, it will give you an idea of what life is like
The two best ones for Lytham st annes are
The only way is Lytham
The only way is st annes

I live in Poulton le Fylde too and would highly recommend it. Hodgson is ofsted outstanding and most of the primary schools are outstanding too. Rossall is a 10 minute drive away if you still wanted that and there is school transport available. I'd avoid Blackpool like the plague, it's horrible! Lytham is also lovely but I don't think the schools are as good as Poulton.

Yes, don't do it.
Horrible place, everyone trying to get out.

The schools up here are much better quality than where we lived previously in Essex. I had my daughter at a prep in Essex but don't see the need here, poulton has 3 - 4 outstanding primaries. Also, due to the lack of grammar schools up here, the clever ones don't get creamed off at the top, with the rest being lumped into the local comp. We are hopeful that ours will get a space at Hodgson, also viewed as outstanding. Good luck OP !