What has happened to my beloved Blackpool? As shocking figures reveal a town ravaged by drugs, alcohol and suicide, IRAM RAMZAN asks how the once bright and vibrant seaside destination turned from UK’s holiday capital to ‘war-torn Beirut’

Like many children from the northern mill towns I was looking forward to going to Blackpool for the summer holidays.

With seven miles of sand, piers, spectacular funfair, theaters and the iconic tower in the background, this seaside town captured the essence of the great British coast.

Not even the gray sky above my head could dampen my mood as I headed to the Pleasure Beach amusement park with my cousins ​​and friends.

While most people were tucking into fish and chips and ice cream on the beach, our mothers instead got up at the crack of dawn to cook fresh kebab rolls, spicy omelettes, parathas (flaky fried flatbreads) and – for the adults – sweet, milky Pakistani tea poured into giant bottles for the adults.

After riding as many rides as we could tolerate at the Pleasure Beach amusement park, us kids raced back to the adults in the parking lot after getting hungry. We must have been quite a sight, a dozen Asian people eating out of the trunk of a car (and after talking to friends, I know we weren’t the only Asian families doing that!).

A typical street in the heart of the seaside town of Blackpool. Pictured in September 2021

Blackpool was previously ranked in an ONS survey as one of the most deprived places in Britain. In the photo: a closed store in 2019

Many shops on the main street and boulevard have closed in recent years (one pictured in 2019).

Holidaymakers ride donkeys on Blackpool beach in July 1954

For working-class families, Blackpool was good value for money – and to some extent still is. The ‘Lancashire Riviera’ remains Britain’s leading affordable seaside resort, with 18 million visitors each year.

John Lydon of the Sex Pistols recently recalled his own beach vacations with his parents.

John, best known by his stage name Johnny Rotten, said: ‘They were fantastic places when I was a kid. Mom and Dad dragged us there for what felt like hours in traffic. But it was absolutely amazing. They were working-class people throwing sand at each other.”

The singer will include Blackpool on his UK tour, which starts in May.

“A lot of this tour I’m doing will be in coastal towns and they really reflect how run-down Britain has become,” he said.

He is right. The Blackpool of today is not the Blackpool that Lydon and I visited as children.

Once a thriving holiday destination on the Irish Sea, Blackpool has become yet another struggling coastal community.

Part of the reason is the cheap package holidays abroad. In May 1962, the first paying flight of the new British airline Euravia took off from Manchester to Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

The resort has been a popular destination for decades. Pictured: Blackpool Tower and the beach in 1890

A general view of a rollercoaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in April 1980

A couple walks in the sea on Blackpool beach on August 6, 2003, when the temperature reached 35.9 degrees Celsius

With flights, hotels and transfers – not to mention guaranteed sunshine all year round – who wouldn’t prefer that to rainy England?

Then there is poverty.

In 2013, Blackpool was identified as one of the most deprived seaside resorts in an Office for National Statistics report, along with Skegness, Clacton, Hastings and Ramsgate. The proportion of children in local authority in Blackpool is the highest in the country.

What has also not helped is the major reduction in central government support for local services. Some parts of the city are so bad that residents compare them to war-torn Beirut, where children reportedly play outside without shoes or socks, while drug users hang out on the streets.

Alarming new research shows that the northern and coastal regions of England are experiencing a much higher burden of death from alcohol, drugs and suicide, collectively described by the bleak phrase ‘deaths of despair’.

Blackpool has the highest rate of these deaths, at 83.8 per 100,000 deaths. Compare that to the area with the lowest rate, Barnet in London, where the rate is 14.5 deaths per 100,000.

Veteran British ringmaster Norman Barrett MBE poses next to an interactive exhibition of himself at Showtown, Blackpool’s first ever permanent museum

An interactive exhibition at the new Blackpool Showtown Museum, capturing the town’s history through the decades

Blackpool-born actor and singer Alfie Boe OBE poses at the entrance to the Showtown Museum in Blackpool

Donkeys on the beach near the central pier on Blackpool Beach in Blackpool

Elderly couple enjoy the sun on Blackpool beach in August 2003

Crowds of people queuing outside Tower Circus, Blackpool in the 1930s

Man dives into a busy swimming pool in Blackpool in August 1937

It’s a far cry from when early 20th century commentator Thomas Luke celebrated Blackpool as ‘one of the wonders of the world’.

Nevertheless, attempts are being made to restore the city to its former glory. Last month the council received £90 million in ‘Levelling Up’ funding to redevelop some of its most deprived areas.

Council leader Lyn Williams said communities needed better housing and investment.

“We want to create strong neighborhoods – stable, thriving and sustainable neighborhoods that have access to things like healthcare, decent jobs, quality housing, schools and leisure activities,” she explained. ‘We want people to enjoy where they live.’

Then there’s the long-awaited inauguration of Blackpool’s very first permanent museum.

Open to the public from Friday, the £13 million Showtown museum is located behind the resort’s now faded seafront, on the site of one of its many former pleasure houses, The Palace nightclub.

Exhibits include Strictly Come Dancing costumes, comedian Peter Kay’s purple suit and Stan Laurel’s hat. Visitors can also see the Blackpool police cell from which Harry Houdini escaped in 1905, an Orville the Duck doll and a harp on the toilet seat made by Charlie Cairoli, Blackpool’s celebrated clown.

Street lights can be seen at night in the traditional holiday destination of Blackpool on October 5, 2005

Crowds of holidaymakers and kiosks offering tea, coffee, ice cream, whelks, cockles and prawns on Blackpool beach in August 1983

Orville the Duck doll and a toilet seat harp made by Charlie Cairoli, Blackpool’s celebrated clown.

The V&A Museum in London has loaned 28 items, including a lion taming stick, Tommy Cooper’s signature fez and Sooty and Sweep dolls. The characters became children’s TV favorites after Harry Corbett bought Sooty from a joke shop on Blackpool’s North Pier in 1948.

For almost a decade, Showtown has been made possible thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, various government and council grants, plus charities including the Ken Dodd Foundation.

Chief executive Liz Moss wants the museum to shine a spotlight on the city’s place in the entertainment industry. “We hope it will help as part of this rejuvenation of Blackpool,” she said.

If anywhere needs a little rejuvenation, it’s Blackpool. And this is a sign that the resort is not quite ready to give up yet. But it will take more than just cashing in on nostalgia for Blackpool to thrive again.