“Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.”
When I was a young boy, Blackpool was our summer Mecca, Disneyland and Nice all rolled into one (although we’d never been to any of the foreign three!!). The first ever seaside resort for the working class. Home of the Blackpool Tower, the Illuminations, Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen, the Circus, the Golden Mile, Blackpool Rock and the Winter Gardens.
I was there a couple of weeks ago speaking to the Blackpool and Fylde College graduates and will be back on September 16 – as patron for the annual BIBA Awards at Blackpool Tower.
The City Council are in the middle of a great project – a £26 million museum for Blackpool which will be like no other. It’ll be fun, interactive and based on the tastes of ordinary people, not the elite. It will tell Blackpool’s story in eight themes.
- Oh I do like to be beside the seasideThe great British seaside holiday: the story of how Blackpool became symbolic of the British seaside holiday both at home and abroad.
- How BizarreFun, thrills and escapism: Blackpool capitalised on our desire for fun and escapism by creating experiences that ranged from the breath-taking to the bizarre.
- Reach for the SkyThe Blackpool Tower story: The story of how Blackpool created one of Britain’s most iconic landmarks; a tale of high drama and deception, but ultimately success.
- Roll-Up! Roll-Up!Britain’s greatest circus town: Britain is the birth place of the modern circus and Blackpool is Britain’s greatest circus town.
- Ta-Da!The great British talent show: featuring comedy, magic, music and dance performance, Blackpool became the northern home of variety; a very British format that grew from music hall and has in recent years moved from the stage and onto our television screens.
- Everybody Dance NowThe home of dance: the chance for a dance has always been one of Blackpool’s biggest attractions. Discover how Blackpool became the global capital of ballroom dance and why dance, in all its forms, is such an important part of our lives.
- Let us Entertain YouThe magnificent Winter Gardens: Blackpool created the best Winter Gardens complex in Britain and attracted national and international stars and incredible events. Even today the events and programs reflect the diversity of great British popular culture.
- It’s better with the lights onThe Blackpool Illuminations: in order to extend the season, Blackpool created the Illuminations. It used electric street lighting to create one of the world’s greatest light attractions.
Visit:
W: blackpoolmuseum.com
F: facebook.com/blackpoolmuseum
T: twitter.com/blackpoolmuseum
KR
