| To most people Blackpool means summer holidays, the beach, the tower, trams, piers and entertainment. However, away from the Promenade is another Blackpool, the Blackpool that normally only the residents see. A busy town with its own industries and its own character.
It is hard to think of Blackpool as an ordinary town rather than a holiday resort, yet there
is an ordinary town to be found a short distance away from the Promenade. |
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There are a few disadvantages for the residents alas. The quiet pub of winter can be found bursting at the seams in summer and to have one or more large doormen in attendance. But those residents who dislike the hustle and bustle have no need to get caught up in it, for their are plenty of hostelries standing further inland and they are not all affected by the inrush of visitors.
Few buildings are old, for Blackpool itself is not that old. When the Post Office moved to its present building in Abingdon Street, the old building was labelled "Old Post Office Buildings" as though it were of venerable age. |
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| An English town these days would feel self concious without a indoor shopping centre. The Hounds Hill Centre was built only a generation ago but had an extensive "improvement" in the 90s. My opinion of course, but I'm not sure what was "improved"...
Perhaps the tubework inside is supposed to make us think that scaffolding can be artistic?
I'm left with the thought that perhaps the twenty-year old sculpture in brickwork of
bare-breasted holiday makers maybe caused a little embarrasment to certain parties and thus led to its replacement by a host of metal drainpiping. |
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The old Odeon cinema on Dickson Road with the cream tiles of its 1930s face-lift and art deco styling gave it a distinctive appearance. The building was split into 3 screens in the 1970s and I watched the Who's "Tommy" with the sound of saws and hammers during the quieter moments! In October 1998 the building came up for sale as the cinema chain decided to close it to follow up plans for a new multi-screen complex (right). |
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| The town centre's only surviving cinema is the ABC. It has seen great stars on both screen and stage, swapping between uses more than once.
As a boy I was taken to see Cliff Richard and the Shadows in 1963 when the building was
re-opened as the ABC Theatre after being known as the Hippodrome. |
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The town centre is being made increasingly into pedestrianised streets. Birley Street had already been pedestrianised when this work started on Clifton Street in late July/early August 1998. |
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The Winter Gardens Church Street entrance, seen from the first floor of the Yorkshire Bank on the corner of Church Street and Abingdon Street.
Littlewoods Store made way for a new building in 1998 with Virgin Records and the Halifax Building Society on
the ground floor and JJB Sports on the 1st floor. |
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The Albert Road car park was closed overnight along with the Central Car Park and the top floor of yet another multi-storey car park in October 1998 following a report on the structures to the Town Council.
Albert Road was later reprieved but was not opened until strengthening supports had been
installed. As the exit from the Hounds Hill multi-storey car park was via the Albert Road car
park, it can be seen that the Council had little choice. |
| The Grand Theatre has to be one of Englands most gloriously designed theatre interiors. With two balconies and a gallery the small theatre is able to pack in a decent sized audience, none of whom are all that far from the stage.
The theatre is open all year round with a summer show, pantomime at Christmas and a mix of comedy, drama, music and professional and amateur society shows during the off-season. |
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