Apr 13, 2001 04:32 AM
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Bombed out of London and Manchester in 1940, my family and 3 years old me, moved to Blackpool to escape the carnage. We rented a house just on Bloomfield Road across the road from the famous Blackpool football club, which was my introduction to football and Blackpool. There was very little gaiety until the war ended and we had to move to follow my father’s work in Accrington that was 31 miles inland and to the east. Every year during the “Wakes Weeks” we would spend anything from a day out to a week’s stay at Blackpool and as a child I loved it and all the attractions that abounded.
N.B. The “Wakes Weeks” are two weeks in July/Aug where all the mills and factories close down so that the workers can have a two weeks holiday. Each Lancashire town had different two weeks although many overlapped.
Today Blackpool, although modernised, isn’t too different as the Tower, Piers, Pleasure Beach and many other attractions are still in situ.
Mention Blackpool to anyone and they will immediately think Tower. It was built by the Victorians at a cost of £45,000, which in those days was a small fortune. Two and a half years after building started on 29th September 1891 and after 2,493 tons of steel and 93 tons of cast iron was used, it was ready for the first visitors on Whit Monday, 14th May 1894 at a cost of 6d (2.5p). Built on the foreshore, at night a powerful searchlight would sweep the sandy beaches and disturb the courting couples under the piers. Today, as courting couples are less inhibited than the Victorians, the searchlight sweeps out to sea to spare the blushes of onlookers. I never like courting under the piers because you got sand in all the wrong places that needed medical attention afterwards. Underneath was the Tower Ballroom with its fabulously ornate ceiling, where dancers and spectators would dance and listen to the mighty Wurlitzer organ, where at one time the famous Reginald Dixon was the resident organist. In the entertainment complex under the Tower were an aquarium, a host of shops, amusement arcades and the legendary Tower Circus.
When it was built the Tower stood a proud 525 feet high, which was then the tallest building in England. Today the Tower has shrunk to 518 feet 9 inches because of a shorter flagpole, unless it has sunk a little.
A new high-speed lift was installed in the Tower in 1992 that whisked visitors 500 feet up to the main observation platform. Apart from a splendid view both out to sea and inland this platform had a unique feature that would leave the brave gasping with delight and the not so brave unable to put a foot forward. Part of the floor had been replaced with glass and it took a brave soul to walk the few paces with nothing visible between them and the buildings some 500 feet below.
But there is more to Blackpool than the Tower. From Lytham St. Anne’s in the south, visitors can catch a tram all the way to Bispham, Cleveleys and Fleetwood in the north and en-route take in the sights of the Pleasure Beach with its world renowned “Big One”, the south pier, central pier and north pier with a wealth of shops, bars and amusement arcades in between, part of which is known as the “Golden Mile”. Aptly named because it generates colossal amounts of money for the tradesmen. Most of the trams built in 1885 have been restored and frequently promenade north and south on the Promenade. In fact you rarely have to wait more than a minute or two for the next tram. And this is the best way to view the five miles of Blackpool Illuminations that are on display from the end of August to early November. It is the greatest free show on earth.
The Pleasure Beach is a 42 acres site of fun, fun and stomach churning fun that has rides of every description possible for all ages, well maybe not for granddad and grandma. Six and a half million visitors get themselves shot up into the air, turned upside down and sideways and dropped from great heights and put through every imaginable experience in an effort to bring up the chips and fish that they have just eaten. The “Big One” now called the “Pepsi Max” is the biggest roller coaster ride in Europe and once ridden, never, ever forgotten. It is like a gentle trip to heaven and a mad dash to hell. Admission to the Pleasure Beach is free but visitors pay to go on the rides, although they can buy sheets of discount tickets.
It may come as a surprise to some people that Blackpool, being on the west Lancashire coast, has developed into the holiday resort that it is because Lancashire was the cotton capital of England because of its rainy weather. Yet for some strange reason when the rest of Lancashire was drowning in rain Blackpool seemed to get the sunshine. In fact just 30 miles away inland we would get on a train and it would be raining and by the time that we got to Preston, which was about half way there, the weather started to brighten and we found Blackpool bathed in sunshine. But it does rain in Blackpool and for those occasions there is the Sandcastle. With tropical temperatures inside, four pool areas and a water slide, families can spend the rainy day indoors getting wet or keeping dry in the many amusement areas. There is a Sea Life Centre with its crystal walk through tunnel and Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks, Stanley Park a 256 acres site with a boating lake, 18 hole putting greens, bowling greens and tennis courts, The Winter Gardens, reputedly with the finest dance floor in the land, and Blackpool Zoo, none further than two miles from the sea front.
Although the north pier is the oldest it is still an attraction not to miss, particularly the end-of-pier helicopter rides along the coast. The youngest pier in the south, very close to the Pleasure Beach, is a family pier with its own Big Top. All three piers have theatres, bars, restaurants, arcades, shops and deck chairs for lounging around on whilst the central pier has a 108 feet high “Big Wheel”.
To experience Blackpool before actually going there, log onto their web site at https://blackpool.com and if you have the right software you can take a virtual trip around the seaside town and its attractions.
To actually get to Blackpool, let the train take the strain, but if that isn’t your fancy just get onto the M6 and drive up or down depending where you are coming from, until junction 32 for the M55 and that takes you very close to the Pleasure Beach. Parking as in any resort is a problem although Blackpool has masses of parking lots all over the place, but if you can’t find an empty berth I would suggest that you go either north to Bispham or Cleveleys or even Fleetwood and park there and get the tram back into Blackpool. You take a chance going south to Lytham St. Anne’s because that too will be full of holidaymakers.
Blackpool is not cheap, except for the fish and chips and beer, but who counts money when in the pursuit of enjoying themselves?
