Most of the UK’s seaside resorts are in a state of terminal decay.
And the same can be said for Blackpool, where a resident blamed the dramatic decline on “Freddie Laker and the rise of package holidays”. From a peak of some 17 million holidaymakers per year year, the coastal town has fallen harder and faster than many of its rivals.
It’s a “s***hole,” one disgruntled local bluntly told Urban Explorer Wendall. The owner of a Blackpool tattoo parlour went further: “It’s rough. There’s crackheads bagheads p***heads, stabbings, all kinds of mad s*** round here.”
Another added that living in Blackpool is “tough" – citing problems with alcohol and drugs stemming from a lack of investment in the area, as well as limited employment opportunities.
READ MORE: UK's 'most deprived town' where people 'live in shacks' and cats are scared of rats
Huge numbers of people in Blackpool were once employed by the tourism industry, but that’s no longer the case. Many of the once-grand hotels have fallen into disrepair.
And some – such as the Metropole – have been repurposed as accommodation for asylum seekers. Some 400 foreign nationals seeking asylum in the UK are being put up in the historic seafront hotel, which dates back to 1785.
Nowadays, the “great, roaring, spangled beast,” as it was once described, is a shadow of its former self. Locals complain that what little money local government has invested in regeneration has gone to a limited area of the seafront, and “just one street away” people are living in a “s***hole.”
Entire streets are boarded up and retail premises are in shocking disrepair. One large retail site, once home to Blackpool’s branch of Woolworths, stands derelict as its owner argues with the local council about whether it can be demolished and converted into a multi-storey car park.
Apparently unwilling to wait for the car park to arrive, one Blackpool local had simply abandoned a wrecked Peugeot on the beach. It was lying on its roof in the sand, with another car dumped nearby, standing as a testament to Blackpool’s gloomy, depressed state.
And just a short walk away stands Blackpool’s former police station, a “concrete brutalist monstrosity" that lends the area a “post apocalyptic” air. There are signs of people sleeping in doorways and the entire area is blighted with graffiti and litter.
A local hotel is currently fighting the council’s opposition to a 24-hour booze licence, over concerns all-day drinking will lead to even more problems on Blackpool’s streets. Councillor Mark Smith said he had already become aware of “a large number of complaints regarding the Barrons Hotel, with police being called out nearly daily".
The sheer expense of Blackpool’s iconic Pleasure Beach also came into question. It can currently cost up to £50 just to enter the attraction.
Blackpool video blogger Stephen Cheatley explains: “One of the reasons why they chose to do that is because back in the 1980s and 1990s people used to be able to walk in and out of Blackpool Pleasure beach, you used to get a lot of football fans and there used to be a lot of trouble.”
The high price of admission, “keeps the riff raff out,” Stephen says. But it also makes it impossible for families on a budget, with even early bird online bookings setting a family of four back around £120.
But there is some good news. Blackpool’s central shopping area remains lively and well-maintained and one of the town's pubs – The Ardwick – boasts the UK’s cheapest pint.
“There is not a cheaper pint in this great nation,” Wendall says. “You can get a pint of cider, a pint of John Smiths, or a pint of Fosters for £1.80.”
Unsurprisingly, the pub is very busy. Its bar is lined with happy customers and there’s a cluster of activity around the fruit machine.
A lot of people visiting Blackpool were in their fifties and sixties and said they had come to relive memories of childhood holidays. But Blackpool can't rely on that generation forever.
Blackpool has recently been awarded £90m of government cash which is expected be invested into a whole-scale transformation of “squalid” housing in the town.
Council leader Lynn Williams said in a statement: “Our residents and communities desperately need better housing and investment in their neighbourhoods, especially in the inner areas of Blackpool.
"We will use this funding to continue the process of positive change, improving housing, neighbourhoods and life chances across inner Blackpool.”
To get more stories from Daily Star delivered straight to your inbox sign up to one of our free newsletters here .
