Blackpool on the Up: The changing face of one of Britain's favourite resorts
Reporter Lucinda Herbert takes a look at the changing fortunes of Blackpool. The seaside resort in Lancashire once synonymous with drunken hen and stag nights has smartened up its act, and the future is looking bright
Transcript
00:00 [Music]
00:27 Blackpool. I'm proud to call it my home.
00:30 I feel lucky to have this beach right on my doorstep.
00:33 It's a town full of friendly faces, and whether it's the Illuminations or the annual Punk Festival,
00:39 there's always something going on in a resort.
00:42 I get defensive when I hear negative comments about my hometown.
00:46 Of course we have our problems, but show me a place that doesn't, and I'll give you this stick of rock.
00:52 [Music]
01:04 If you've been to Blackpool recently, you'll no doubt have seen the amount of building work going on in a town centre.
01:11 There are some really exciting developments to the pipeline, and although you can't really see it yet,
01:17 there's a feeling in the air that Blackpool is working really hard to modernise and clean up its image.
01:23 [Music]
01:32 We have a new hotel complex, an IMAX cinema, an exciting new showbiz museum called Showtown, all due to launch in 2024.
01:42 So, is it possible that Blackpool is on the up?
01:46 [Music]
02:02 Hi, I am Lee D. Johns from the world-famous Viva Blackpool.
02:08 My main function here at Viva Blackpool is that I am the host and conpare of the majority of our in-house shows.
02:16 So I'm kind of here five nights a week in the glorious world of Blackpool show business.
02:22 [Music]
02:25 Big, big advocate for Blackpool. I love Blackpool.
02:28 We went through a period of being slaughtered by the media for Stag and Ends.
02:32 Wasn't having any of that. It's a real for everybody location.
02:37 Unlike other seaside resorts, it gets genres from every walk of life. I love that.
02:41 And nobody will ever say a bad word about Blackpool unless they'll have me to deal with.
02:45 [Music]
02:52 Show me a town of that kind like Blackpool around the country that doesn't get Stag and Ends.
02:57 I know Blackpool gets it a lot more because of its attraction and the fun, the pleasure beach.
03:04 I nearly said fun fair then. That's how old I am.
03:07 But the pleasure beach, you know, it's part of the economy.
03:13 And if you want to put it into business terms, and you know, they're in and out.
03:17 And there's lots of other places and opportunities for people to go to, families to go to.
03:21 And it just went through a bit of bad press.
03:23 But I think that's tailored now and it's gone because Blackpool have kind of re-educated people about it.
03:28 Because we go on tour with some of our shows up and down the country.
03:32 And it amazes me how many people haven't been to Blackpool.
03:35 But there again, I don't go down south that often unless I'm on tour.
03:39 So, you know, it is what it is and it's fabulous.
03:42 [Music]
03:50 Blackpool's an individual bag, as they say.
03:54 There's nowhere on this earth like Blackpool. And that's why it is what it is.
03:59 And you go to other seaside resorts and they're hustle and bustle, but different hustle and bustle.
04:05 And Blackpool, it's very hard to put a finger on Blackpool.
04:08 It's just, it has so many diversities and that's, you know, what I said earlier.
04:12 Nowhere else has it and I can't put my finger on it.
04:16 Other places haven't got huge pleasure beaches like we have.
04:19 They haven't got the illuminations like we have.
04:22 And I don't really think there's towns that have the entertainment that's available in Blackpool still.
04:27 And we'll always strive for that here at Viva. Always, always.
04:30 As long as I can possibly do it. I mean, I'm no spring chicken now.
04:34 I don't know whether you've noticed. Think somebody'll laugh back there then.
04:37 [Laughs]
04:39 I do think we get a really bad end of the press.
04:44 A lot of it is, you know, really poor, lazy journalism.
04:49 Obviously, present company accepted.
04:52 But it's easy to say those things about Blackpool without then focusing on, you know, the amount of attractions that we have.
05:00 You know, we have the most indoor attractions outside of London.
05:04 You know, we had estimates vary between 60 and 80,000 people on the promenade for Switchel.
05:10 So there is still a, you know, a real demand, a real love, a desire to come to Blackpool.
05:15 And I think that you've kind of seen that change.
05:19 Other places are allowed to be many things to different people.
05:23 You have Barcelona and Prague, which is stag doos, but also have the history.
05:27 But somehow Blackpool isn't allowed to, you know, or why shouldn't we be?
05:31 We can be those things. We can be a really successful family resort.
05:36 And we can also still offer that nightlife that, you know, that is important.
05:43 And have, you know, it's a bit similar, you know, the Winter Gardens, the conference centre.
05:47 You know, one month we'll have Pigeon Fancies here.
05:50 And then the next month we have, you know, the biggest punk rebellion festival.
05:55 I think that the Lightpool this year, first of all, it's going to be amazing.
06:02 You know, we've got some stuff coming that hasn't been shown in this country.
06:05 So it's going to be incredible having the, having this year, you know, from the Arts Council
06:14 to have that status on the illuminations in Lightpool is, you know, is fantastic.
06:19 And gives that, enables that development of it.
06:23 And I think, you know, linking it kind of with tourism, some of the things that we wanted to do was,
06:28 you know, we have all these hundreds of thousands, millions of people on the promenade,
06:32 is to get them to come into the, you know, come in and see the inside of the wonderful Winter Gardens.
06:39 [Music]
06:44 The, that innovative nature of Blackpool and the illuminations, you know, nearly 150 years ago,
06:53 somebody thought about putting some street lights on six foot poles along the promenade.
06:57 And now, you know, about 145 years later, you know, they can be seen from space.
07:03 What I've always wanted to do is to make sure that the illuminations aren't just for the holiday makers.
07:08 They're not just something to, you know, go on in the background of everybody's holiday stamps.
07:12 They're actually also a celebration of the people that live in Blackpool as well.
07:17 And I think the big one will be the Spitfire illumination that I've created,
07:22 which is over there with the in-house illuminations team.
07:26 And that is a celebration of a historical moment.
07:31 You know, the people of Blackpool got together and they funded three Spitfires.
07:35 So three Spitfires were there to actually ensure that the way that we live was maintained,
07:43 the way that we, all that we value was protected.
07:47 And so we've created this installation, really, for the Ginn Island,
07:54 where we have three Spitfires ascending to the heavens, which are then illuminated.
08:00 And then we've got the Chai Kamara collaboration behind us now,
08:04 which is so, so Blackpool in so many ways.
08:08 It's so, you know, it's just so elevating.
08:12 It's so energising. It's so much fun.
08:16 But this is, you know, a very serious piece of art from a very serious artist
08:21 who's talking about her relationship with Blackpool,
08:24 who's talking about her relationship with her father's business.
08:27 They were the ice cream van sellers.
08:31 He's no longer with us.
08:32 So this is a very emotional and, you know, very sort of deeply thought through piece of art.
08:39 And yet it's an illumination. And I love that now.
08:42 I love the fact that it's not just about kind of, you know, the latest cartoon characters.
08:49 It's not about, you know, the sort of the computer games that everybody has at home.
08:55 Actually, we can reconnect with a tradition that is absolutely at the start of Blackpool,
09:03 which is about the creation of somewhere where people can have fun, people can relax,
09:08 people can have leisure, but they can also be informed.
09:12 They can also be stimulated.
09:13 You know, back in the 1860s, 1870s, people were coming here for Wakes Week from the mills in Lancashire
09:19 and they were given access to concerts, to poetry readings, to theatre, to, you know,
09:25 all sorts of things that they didn't have.
09:27 They were given access to art and the 20th century, Blackpool kind of lost its way on that score.
09:33 But I think now, you know, now in 2023, we're beginning to re-engage with this idea of fun,
09:41 but with a bit of depth, you know, fun, but with a bit of thought.
09:45 [Background conversation]
09:50 This isn't an enormous electricity bill, you know, this isn't something, we are not wasting energy here.
09:56 Everything now is LED produced, everything is digitally produced.
09:59 We can be treading very, very gently with the illuminations in a way that we, you know,
10:04 we simply couldn't 20 years ago, 30 years ago.
10:06 The technology didn't exist.
10:08 What I want to do though, with that technology, is to just make sure it also looks great, you know,
10:13 it looks exciting.
10:15 And with the Neo-Neon, we call them tunnels of light now.
10:19 So there is this real feeling of the entire mile being something that somebody has had an eye on.
10:27 You know, it's not a bit here, a bit there, cartoon character, you know,
10:30 a bit of advertising or whatever, whatever, whatever.
10:32 Actually, it's all about that as a big experiential moment.
10:37 It means that the work that I do for one point of the year is visible from space, which is true.
10:45 It means that, you know, there is a little bit of Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen that the whole universe can appreciate.
10:51 But I mean, Blackpool is a ridiculously special place.
10:54 I'm not from Blackpool. I never came to Blackpool as a child.
10:57 You know, I'm here because I love the aesthetic jewel box that is this place.
11:04 You know, I've had presentations I've gone into and people are kind of like, "Really? Here? Blackpool?"
11:08 And you go, "Well, yeah! Yeah, look, the ballroom, the tower."
11:12 You know, I mean, actually, there's so much art deco here.
11:16 There's so much, you know, there's so much modern.
11:19 You know, design was always used in Blackpool as another element to add to the kind of the leisure.
11:27 Blackpool is super special.
11:30 It does need to be, you know, it does need to be appreciated.
11:33 But what I want to do is also then keep moving that forward.
11:36 It's also to, you know, make sure that that commitment to doing something different, to design,
11:42 is something that is constantly reinvented, constantly relevant.
11:47 [Music]
12:06 I like the sea.
12:09 You like the sea?
12:11 Is there anywhere else you like in Blackpool?
12:14 I really like the Eiffel Tower.
12:17 The Eiffel Tower? The Blackpool Tower?
12:19 The Blackpool Tower? What do you like about Blackpool Tower?
12:23 Oh, there's plenty of things to do in there. The old history of the ballroom.
12:26 And yeah, we had a really good time there.
12:28 We like the central pier round here in all Blackpool, don't we?
12:31 Yeah? You like Blackpool, don't you?
12:33 Yeah.
12:34 [Music]
12:39 Even the Avenue Street Market has had a massive facelift.
12:42 It's shed its traditional image in favour of artisan stalls and trendy food and drink vendors.
12:48 Some people might miss the old style, but it's a sign of how Blackpool is moving with the times.
12:54 [Music]
13:10 We've got fresh fruit and veg, quite a range of vegan produce.
13:14 We've got vegan cheeses, some gluten-free products, dried flowers, soaps, bath bombs.
13:20 We've kind of got a bit of everything, really.
13:22 As somebody who was born and raised in the area and never really felt like there was a communal space to go to,
13:30 I find myself coming to Avenue Street Market all the time for food, to meet up with friends, and now with a retail space as well.
13:37 I think it's a really, really positive thing for the town, absolutely.
13:41 We were selling all our gifts and crystals from our dining room, and then when we found out about the market,
13:47 we thought, "Right, this sounds fantastic. We've got the opportunity to sell a bit more in the right location
13:54 and be part of a new retail community in the heart of Blackpool."
13:59 The market looks fabulous, and all the traders that I've met and all the people to do with the market
14:06 have all been fantastic. There's a proper community here.
14:10 Going forward, I think it's going to be marvellous, not only for the market, but for Blackpool and the town centre.
14:16 Yeah, I've got a passion for Blackpool. I love being part of this town centre.
14:19 I love being part of the regeneration. I'm really excited about all this.
14:23 So what are your thoughts on Avenue Street Market so far?
14:27 Oh, I love it. I love the vibe of the place. I think Blackpool's needed a marketplace that's undercover with the drinking
14:34 and the social vibe of it. I think it's been needed for a very long time.
14:38 And yes, I love the feel of it down here. It's very arty, it's very modern, very different, and proud to be a part of it.
14:45 Blackpool has a long and illustrious showbiz heritage.
14:50 In days gone by, the big stars would come to town and do a long summer stint at the Winter Gardens.
14:57 We're also known as the world capital for ballroom dance, as any Strictly fan will know.
15:03 And we have some excellent theatres that regularly bring some of the top West End musicals to the resort.
15:10 Well, it's undoubtedly a challenging time for theatres such as ours, particularly presenting theatres, where we don't create the productions.
15:19 We rely on partnerships with people like Nottingham Playhouse and the leading commercial producers in the country to bring exciting work to Blackpool.
15:27 We have bounced back with an incredibly exciting season. We've seen audiences return in huge numbers to Pantomime.
15:34 I think it's fair to say drama audiences are up and down, and that's the picture across the country.
15:39 So the best way that you can support The Grand and support our ongoing work, whether it's on or off stage,
15:44 is by coming along, buying a ticket, and sharing a fabulous evening with your friends and family.
15:49 Blackpool Grand is Blackpool's number one pantomime.
15:53 We're celebrating our 27th year of relationship with our producers, Martin Dodd and UK Productions.
15:59 Steve Royal is a favourite of ours each year, and Tom Lister, another local actor who people will know from Emmerdale
16:05 and various productions in the West End, is back with us.
16:08 So we're really excited to be welcoming it. What we expect will be another bumper year.
16:13 It really is nothing like pantomime here at Blackpool Grand, so make sure you book your tickets soon.
16:19 Otherwise they might be gone. Oh yes, they will.
16:22 It's a story of magic and love and lamps and silliness and genies and villains and Twankey's laundrette.
16:37 Loads of washing.
16:39 I think what's really exciting is that it's a vibrant programme, and so many different types of productions.
16:44 You don't need to get on the train and go to Manchester or jump in your car and go to Liverpool.
16:49 The biggest and best shows from the West End, they're all here at the Grand,
16:52 and you don't need to go further than a tram stop or two to get here.
16:56 I have to say it's the first time in 50 odd years of my life I've ever been here.
17:03 But he lives in Preston, so...
17:05 I used to, how long ago now? 50 years ago. No, 40 years ago.
17:11 So it probably is, but the problem is we've come out of season, haven't we?
17:15 But it's still lovely, and the people that we've met so far are amazing.
17:18 I love it.
17:19 I think we last came probably 10 years ago, didn't we?
17:22 Yeah, we came 10 years ago.
17:24 I don't know if we've come out of the quiet... well, obviously I've come out of the quieter part of year,
17:28 but there's a few newer bits, aren't there, I'd say, that are quite nice and make it worth the trip, I'd say,
17:36 even though we're only here a few days.
17:38 Well, we've had a walk all around the amusements and things.
17:41 We're about to go on the piers.
17:44 I want to do it all, and then I'm plucking up the courage to go up the tower.
17:48 There's a whole, whole host of entertainment and fun to be looking at.
17:55 It really is quite an incredible new attraction.
17:58 It's called a museum, but do you know what? It's so much more than that.
18:02 So it's six galleries of fun that are based on the history of Blackpool,
18:07 picking up on the key themes such as circus, the seaside, performance, and also roll-up, roll-up.
18:13 And in each gallery, we've got a whole host of interactive AVs, storytelling, costumes and props,
18:21 and you might always come across a few characters from the past as well.
18:25 Blackpool is the greatest show town on the planet, we think.
18:29 It's certainly the greatest show town in Britain.
18:32 And we're really surprised that there hasn't been a museum before,
18:34 because there are hundreds of years' worth of collection items that are currently under wraps.
18:40 So what we're doing here is telling the stories of people's pasts, people's families,
18:45 and we're bringing them alive through the objects that we have that relate to the history of circus or illuminations,
18:52 and the whole host of stage performance and performers from the past.
18:57 So it really tells the way in which Blackpool became a major seaside resort
19:03 that was built on great performance, great fun, innovation, and doing things somewhat differently to everywhere else.
19:10 So we're talking about a resort here that has over 150 years' worth of history.
19:16 So of course, the demographics of the visitors have changed,
19:21 but the resort's still attracting 90 million visits a year, which is quite extraordinary.
19:26 And the makeup of people that come may be slightly different, but not heavily so.
19:32 I think what's amazing about Blackpool is that since the pandemic, it's really fought back.
19:40 It's really having another heyday.
19:43 And that's partly based on accessibility. It's partly based on value.
19:48 But it's wholeheartedly based on the amount of cultural activities that are taking place.
19:54 So whether you want to dance in the iconic ballroom at the Tower,
19:58 or whether you want to see award-winning performances at the Grand Theatre or Winter Gardens,
20:05 or whether you want to ride on the Pleasure Beach or go to the piers,
20:08 or visit some of the smaller arts and cultural venues, there is an absolute wealth here,
20:14 as well as the very many nostalgic items that people love to remember.
20:19 And I think nostalgia is really coming to the forefront of people's minds at the moment.
20:24 Again, since the pandemic, people want to ride on the trams that they rode on with their families.
20:28 They want to have fish and chips by the sea.
20:31 And it's fabulous that we've got a new museum as well that actually gives another sense of occasion to come and visit.
20:38 It gives another element of surprise, gives something new to add to that brilliant wealth of what Blackpool already has.
20:45 Away from the bustle of the prom, Blackpool has an award-winning park.
20:51 Stanley Park is a great place to come for a quiet stroll, a round of golf or a bite to eat.
20:56 It's changed in that we've been through Covid and we've now come out of it, and the park is returning to normal life.
21:07 We've won a number of awards.
21:10 We won the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service for the work that we do in the community.
21:16 We have installed a BMX bike track. We have installed the skateboard park.
21:24 It was a very silly idea of mine and Simon's in 2019 to approach the council about getting the skate park that was here renovated.
21:37 And this is what we ended up with.
21:39 It's designed by a user of skate parks to be a multi-function, multi-wheeled activity centre really.
21:50 The old skate park was not safe and the council was spending a fortune on maintenance on it.
21:57 So we basically asked for permission from Blackpool to go out and try and raise funds.
22:03 And with their approval, we progressed to delivery on the ground.
22:08 And like Woody says, they said yes to that straight away.
22:11 So getting the council on board was key to us achieving what we've achieved.
22:15 It was designed by a skateboarder, i.e. me and the input from the mine works that actually constructed it.
22:23 I think the local users had input on that as well, didn't they?
22:27 So we used our Facebook page to share surveys on what people wanted, what features they wanted.
22:33 So that's reached about 1,800 people as a sort of consultation stage.
22:38 I'm a skateboarder and a lot of people were going, "Oh, Woody's going to build it just for skateboarders."
22:44 That was never the case. I've tried to build this.
22:47 And you look around now, there's scooters, there's BMXs, there's skateboarders.
22:51 All sorts of people use it and that's what the design was all about.
22:55 [Music]
23:00 Blackpool will always have a special place on the map and in the hearts of those who've holidayed here.
23:06 New attractions and developments means there's a lot more choice of things to do.
23:11 And the resorts can be enjoyed by future generations.
23:15 I think there's a real feeling that things are changing for the better.
23:20 And I think in one or two years' time, this resort will look quite a bit different to how it looks today.
23:29 Is Blackpool on the up? I think so.
23:34 [Music]