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Goin' To Blackpool!
"Goin' to Blackpool" i always luv to tell that to the B&B ladies when they ask where i'm off to next. This usually provokes eyebrows being raised and a dubious look as to why the heck would this Yank be goin' to Blackpool?
One of my favorite places in the world i just luv Blackpool and all the great people watching and fun it provides. I'm gonna be talking about what Blackpool does for me and describe it thru my eyes. Stay tuned. I'm always interested in what others think of Blackpool - i'd luv your thoughts on this one-of-a-kind place! |
I would love to go to Blackpool!
I look forward to hearing about your trip and how much fun it was .. what a hoot :D |
Blackpool holds a special place in our family ... where m'mum met m'dad in 1943!
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Jean, I think that my parents also met at a war time dance in Blackpool! I also remember been driven through the illuminations every year as kids.
Unfortunately it's not realy my cup of tea these days - it's rather tacky and can be a bit rowdy at certain times with lots of "stag" and "hen" parties :( |
tacky yes that's why i love it i guess. Even on Coronation Street many of them turn their noses up when someone says they're going to Blackpool - it's the Cilla and Les batterby types who go there! Ken Baldwin probably never.
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My first introduction to Blackpool was in the film <b>Funnybones</b> with Oliver Platt and Lee Evans who I think is brilliant.
I loved it for being corny , tacky if you must call it that, and unsophisticated .. sometimes that is so much more refreshing than being ever so cool and hip :D |
Dreadful place OMG I would rather stay home.
MUuck |
I also LOVE Blackpool - that's where my grandfather was born & raised. We grew up in the beaches area of Toronto and when I visited Blackpool, I immediately saw the similarities. Yes, it may be a titch tacky but that is part of the charm.
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Blackpool? Two memories only. First one - driving down the seafront and seeing all the lights. It was a Humber Hawk and it must have had an open top - or at least that's how I remember it. Don't know whose car it was.
Fast forward about 30 years - and remember Neil Kinnock? Ee by gum, lad. |
Dreadful place with no redeeming features IMHO - the worst England has to offer. Think of a dirty beach, heavily polluted sea, litter and vomit covered pavements, inarticulate, rowdy, (often violent) youngsters.....Yep, I'd certainly choose a holiday there!
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I'm far from "cool and hip" Scarlett ;) I just like quieter places, scenery, etc, now I'm getting older.
I spent my childhood holidays at places like Blackpool and even New Brighton. Donkey rides on the beach, a trip up the tower and a few rides on the pleasure beach - that was as sophisticated as it got :D |
Fuzzylogic - you saw all the lights? Usually the kids were asleep in the back of the car by the time we got to the end. :D
I also remember the awful zoo in the tower with lions in small cages pacing up and down - thank goodness that has gone :( |
Maria H: You had a car? That's the trouble with this board. Too many bleedin' toffs.
The only way to see the Lights was from a Ribble bus. And I bet you never got a Wallasey Corporation bus from Seacombe for New Brighton (2d cheaper that way than the ferry). |
BTW:
Talking of seedy zoos, who can remember Belle Vue? You'd have thought it couldn't get any worse. But it's now - literally - gone to the dogs. |
Ken Baldwin?!?!?! I can see why PalQ might have made that Freudian elision, but I think he must have missed a few million episodes.
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Ken Barlow; Mike Baldwin - both wouldn't be caught dead in Blackpool; Baldwin maybe if there was a buck to me made! On one recent episode (about a year behind here on CBC) about some low-brow affair - Bet the old bartender who had been laying low in Blackpool - "Oh it's a Blackpool kind of thing"
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Flanneruk - my Dad had a succession of old bangers that he kept going with bits from the scrap yard. I think I remember breaking down one trip to the lights and being told "the big end has gone" :D
The highlight of a holiday in New Brighton was a trip on the "ferry cross the Mersey" and back. Yes, I remember Belle Vue Zoo and it's funfair too - I went with my older brother and sister and some family friends who promptly lost me - I was about 5 at the time. Nostalgia is not what it used to be, is it? :D |
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As a foreigner I find Blackpool so captivating - never seen a place like that - like Coney Island in its heyday. I especially love the Blackpool Lights - the display of Christmas lights and lit Christmas-themed neon light displays. These stretch for several miles along the boardwalk along the sea. They run from late August to mid November i believe. And as others have said the road along them is packed with cars stuffed with kids, tour buses and, along the road, the famous Blackpool trams, many of which are wonderfully illuminated themselves - some are in the shape of boats, etc. Some are double-deckers. The trams are a favorite way of seeing the lights it seems. The trams are another reason i love Blackpool - i love trains and trams and Blackpool's trams are an eclectic collection - some from Eastern Europe it seems, some old British double-deckers, but all different it seems. anyway during the Lights a sense of revelry reigns over the town - it must be a child's delight. Accommodations on weekends during the Lights can be very hard to get so book early even though Blackpool has a zillion B&Bs.
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Maria H: My mum and dad also met at a dance!!! My mother was an entertainer in a comedy/song/dance act with her father and brother, and the dance was on her night off. My dad was in the U.S. Navy stationed in Northern Ireland and in Blackpool on leave. My mother was on a date with another G.I., but my dad swept her off her feet! (And vice-versa. She was a babe!)
As far as I know, that was the one and only time they were in Blackpool, but my mother has told us about the illuminations. |
LOL, flanner, Maria you bleedin toff :D
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Blackpool, ah yes! memories of childhood. I always wanted to see the lights from one of the lit Trams but they always seemed to be booked for private parties and my Dad didn’t want to drive along the seafront, so, we always walked.
We visited regularly until I was 14 or so but I made sure I took my kids when they were old enough to stay awake for the stroll. The problem is that when you visit as an adult you realize that while the lights stretch for miles they actually use the same set of lights for quite a while and it gets a tad boring. Morecambe anyone? |
Mr. Connolly, me amour, wants to go to Blackpool. Something to do with Dr. Who, I think????
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"Toff", "cool and hip" - I don't come on here to be insulted LOL ;)
Jean, my Mum was up from Stockport (where I still live) for a short holiday, my Dad was Czech and stationed over here with the Free Czech forces. The rest, as they say, is history. |
Blackpool B&Bs - I've never seen more B&Bs in one place than in Blackpool - tiny buildings each with their own private pub down below (for afterhours drinking) - i have often stopped here on my way north just for one night because i love the Blackpool scene - the trams, etc., and they're about twice as cheap as normal ones - 15 pounds very possible for lower end. but like most B&Bs in UK the older types are finding they must become en-suite (wc/douche in room) to survive so these basic B&Bs even here seem to be biting the dust! Dommage!
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If you go to the Zoo, make sure that you take a stick with a horse's head handle and give my love to Wallace
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I've never got inland enough to go to the Blackpool Zoo - what's it like - i would suspect pitiful place for animals given what i know bout Blackpool. Another Zoo is Pleasure Beach, a human zoo that is called the most visited tourist sight in Britain outside of London? This amusement park features the Pepsi Max, not long ago billing itself as the world's highest roller-coaster.
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BLACKPOOL TRAMS
Blackpool had the world's first permanent electric street tramway in 1885 - the line is 12 miles long, with boisterous trams trundling between Clevelys on the south thru Blackpool to Fleetwood on the north, all along the sea. Blackpool Pleasure Beach - i were wrong even including London the Blackpool tourist office boasts: Britain's most popular tourist attraction is Pleasure Beach, with 7.2 annual visitors. |
I think that Miss P. is referring to the sad tale of Albert Ramsbottom who went to Blackpool Zoo with his stick with a horse's head handle. He poked a lion in the ear with it and was eaten.
I've a sort of feeling that the zoo no longer exists. |
Is that a true story - sounds like it! ??? Incroyable!
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Maria H,
I just re- read the responses here and I see that mine after yours sounds like I was calling <u>you</u>, <i>cool and hip </i>.. While I bet you really are :) I was not referring to you or any particular person, only a type of place or an atmosphere..please don't think I was being insulting..even if you are really a <font color="pink">Toff :D</font> |
Here is the sad story about the demise of Albert Ramsbottom
ALBERT AND THE LION There's a famous seaside place called Blackpool That's noted for fresh air and fun And Mr. and Mrs. Ramsbottom Went there with young Albert, their son. A fine little lad were young Albert, All dressed in his best, quite a swell. He'd a stick with an 'orse's 'ead 'andle; The finest that Woolworth's could sell. They didn't think much to the ocean, The waves they were piddlin' and small. There were no wrecks and nobody drownded, 'Fact, nothin' to laugh at at all! So, seeking for further amusement, They paid, and went into the zoo, Where they'd lions and tigers and camels And cold ale and sandwiches, too. There were one great big lion called Wallace Whose nose was all covered with scars; He lay in a som-no-lent posture With the side of 'is face on the bars. Now Albert 'ad 'eard about lions- 'Ow they was ferocious and wild; To see lion lyin' so peaceful Just didn't seem right to the child. So straightway the brave little feller, Not showin' a morsel of fear, Took 'is stick with the 'orse's 'ead 'andle And stuck it in Wallace's ear. You could see that the lion din't like it, For givin' a kind of a roll, 'E pulled Albert inside the cage with 'im And swallered the little lad - 'ole! Now Mother 'ad seen this occurrence, And not knowin' what to do next, She 'ollered "Yon lion's et Albert!" An' Father said "Ee, I am vexed." They complained to an animal keeper Who said "My, wot a nasty mis'ap; Are you sure it's your boy 'e's eaten?" Pa said, "Am I sure? There's 'is cap!" The manager 'ad to be sent for; 'E came and 'e said "Wot's to-do?" Ma said "Yon lion's et Albert, And 'im in 'is Sunday clothes, too!" Father said "Right's right, young feller- I think it's a shame and a sin To 'ave our son et by a lion And after we paid to come in." The manager wanted no trouble; He took out his purse right away, Sayin' "'Ow much to settle the matter?" Pa said "Wot do you usually pay?" But Mother 'ad turned a bit awkward When she saw where 'er Albert 'ad gone. She said "No, someone's got to be summonsed!" So that was decided upon. And off they all went to p'lice station In front of a Magistrate chap; They told what 'ad 'appened to Albert And proved it by showing 'is cap. The Magistrate gave 'is opinion That no one was really to blame, And 'e said that 'e 'oped the Ramsbottoms Would 'ave further sons to their name. At that Mother got proper blazin': "And thank you, sir, kindly," said she- "Wot, spend all our lives raisin' children To feed ruddy lions? Not me!" |
Europe's Number 1 Resort! that's what the Blackpool tourist office folks call the town. Europe's number ONE!
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Blackpool was a favourite holiday destination when we were growing up as kids. Once a year my dad's work would send its employees and their families off on a day trip to Blackpool. Reading the e-mails brings back many memories of Blackpool and it doesn't sound like its changed that much in the last 40 years. Forty years later, living on the Candian prairie with my own kids-now grown up- I wish I could wind the clock back to those good old days!
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I live in Blackpool and love it. My house is about 3 minutes from North Shore - the quieter and in my view nicer part of town. One trouble Blackpool has is it receives a lot of negative publicity - some of which justified, most of it written by people who have never visited the resort or have only been once, had a bad experience (you can have that anywhere) and condemned the whole town. The truth is, it still receives more visitors than any other seaside resort in Britain, and if all the negative publicity were true, the whole town would be boarded up by now. Tacky tourism affects only a small part of the town - the coastal strip barely 100 yds wide and 1/2 mile long. The rest of the town has some beautiful open spaces - Stanley Park (where I played a round of golf this week - one of the finest public courses), the Zoo, Model Village, the boating lake. A lot of money is being spent to modernise the resort - a new central corridor and southern approach in particular. Townships of Clevelys, Bispham, Lytham, St Annes are charming places with friendly locals and worth anyone's afternoon, with fine golf at the latter two thrown in. Also little known to outsiders are villages in Over Wyre, and on a fine day, the view across Morecambe Bay from Knott End towards the Lakes is as breathtaking as any. Blackpool for many is stil a place for traditional entertainment - the piers, the prom, the tram, the tower, circus, theatres, Pleasure Beach - but don't forget there are other areas just waiting to be discovered which have been appreciated and cherished by locals for years. With good transport links (even an airport with daily flights to London, Dublin, IOM and Girona), value for money and friendly, unstressed people - we like it here!
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Miss Prism, you'll leave everyone sad if you don't tell about the young man from the Prudential and Albert's reappearance. Or shall I?
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Bring back some Blackpool Rock (candy stick) if they still sell it.
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What a fun thread!! A stupid question. Is Blackpool in Cornwall??
Sorry for not knowing. And the rest of the story about little Albert please. |
Alec, I'll take it, I'll take it!!
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Sorry, LoveItaly, I got swept away by Alecs description :)
Not Cornwall .. it is in NorthWest England, in Lancashire . |
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