July 21, 2012
-
(written on 6 March 2013)
Yes. Tacky, seedy, past glory, that sums up Blackpool quite nicely. Except… Huh… Sure, the North Pier could do with some serious maintenance because if twenty layers of thick paint still have started peeling badly then it’s probably time to strip away all paint and start from scratch, but as I walked through the town centre close to the North Pier there were some interesting changes. First of all there were the trams. All along Blackpool’s coast there’s a tram line running from Pleasure Beach in the south to Fleetwood north of the town. The trams that were in use on this line were ancient. Very much nostalgic but also not terribly efficient, fast or comfortable. However, today I noticed that all these old trams had been replaced with new ones! And they looked so modern, and indeed comfortable!
But that wasn’t the only change. The promenade had been completely revamped and it really looked stunning, with a wonderful stairs leading down to the beach and a wide open space where you can stroll at your own leisure from North Pier all the way to Pleasure beach. Many of the old games halls had been closed and replaced with newer buildings. Blackpool Tower was undergoing some serious maintenance (and as I found out later today, the interior had been completely renewed) and behind the Tower, the shopping streets were simply unrecognisable, with a large and very nice shopping centre, Hounds Hill, where once there had been scruffy streets and dark alleys. Blackpool, in the years that I hadn’t been there, had undergone a true transformation, and building work was still going on on a large scale (the entire block east of Blackpool North station, where once the wonderful gay bar The Flying Handbag had been had all been flattened and was ready for redevelopment as well) and I must say that I was truly impressed.
The same can’t be said about Arno, who arrived in Blackpool at around noon with a slight hangover, and who, as a Mancunian, made no attempt at hiding his ever so slight disgust for Blackpool. But, it must be said that it was great to see Arno again and funnily enough, between the two of us we had lost about 35 kilograms, or ‘one Karen Carpenter’, since we’d last saw each other and we were both feeling great about it. After Arno had dropped off his luggage we went for lunch first (Starbucks – yes, there is now a Starbucks here as well) and then did the usual walk up and down the coast (or down and up, depending from which direction you’re looking), visiting the North Pier, Central Pier and South Pier, and in between also Blackpool Tower and its much expanded Glass Floor (picture above).
In the early evening, after we’d both returned to our hotels and freshened up, we went for a meal in Pizza Express and then for some drinks in various gay bars in this famous gay ‘resort’. Among the bars that we visited was The Flying Handbag (in its new location), Lucy Two (mainly lesbian but there was an artist performing there) and lastly Mardi Gras, where we met up with some of Arno’s friends who had coincidentally come to Blackpool as well this weekend. In the Mardi Gras bar we saw a performance by a certain Miss Stella Artois, a vicious drag queen (just as they are supposed to be) who told many dirty jokes and did a great performance. We left the bar after midnight and returned to our own hotels for a well deserved rest. Sea air makes you tired, you know.
