Everyone seems to be getting very wound up about the fate of the Winter Gardens. I would not have thought any of this were a bolt from the blue. Spending £1m a year subsidising a private company to keep it open is clearly not justifiable in the long-term given the change in the conference market, especially for political parties.
Along with the Tower, the Winter Gardens are the essential component of Blackpool’s civic heritage in my view. We cannot allow the complex to wither and decline. But that doesn’t mean we don’t ask the question of what to do with the complex given changing demands. To argue for differing usages is not the same as calling in the wreckers’ ball.
A lot of attention has been given in the past to the National Theatre Museum transferring to Blackpool – but the will was never quite there to make it work. Better links with the Grundy to put on displays like the Supremes is as far as that will go. But I do think ‘heritage’ or ‘nostalgia’ tourism will have a key role to play in Blackpool’s medium-term future. Why not a National Museum of Seaside Life? As the first working-class seaside resort, Blackpool would be the ideal location to trace the impact of the growth of leisure time on daily life over the past couple of hundred years. I am sure parts of the Winter Gardens complex could be utilised for that, with a more varied entertainment/shopping outlets surrounding it. Another opportunity for an artist’s impression no doubt.
There was an interesting passage in a column by Richard Morrison in The Times today about how seaside resorts can rebrand themselves – provoked by The Apprentice‘s attempts in Margate which start on TV very soon (I’m writing this whilst I wait!) Morrison talks of some seaside towns which have turned a corner: “They have all turned their backs on the hopeless burgers-and-slot-machines ethos that clings to the British seaside resort like a mouldy shroud. As a nation we are far more discriminating, cosmopolitan and demanding in our leisure tastes than we were even 30 years ago … Only at the seaside do traders and local authorities imagine that they can woo crowds with food, facilities and rides so squalid that they should be treated as toxic waste”.
A bit bleak, perhaps, but Blackpool will always be, Janus-like, trying to face both ways at once. How does it appeal to the nation’s sense of nostalgia and love of heritage without remaining stuck in the past when the market and the level of quality expected has moved on. People have happy memories of Blackpool, and it exerts a powerful pull on the national psyche, but we cannot move forward by trying to create yesterday’s Golden Era when every hotel was full to bursting. Clearly our future does not lie solely in casinos, nor in endless stag and hen parties. But where does it lie?
I have written enough for one blog posting, and I have plenty of views on that last question I shall share with you in the weeks to come, but do email me at [email protected] with your views too!
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May 13th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Hi Mr Maynard, this is an excellent blog and I wish you the best of luck with your campaign to become MP for Blackpool N and Cleveleys. Unfortunately I cannot vote for you myself as I live south of the border. But I sincerely hope Ron Bell will be joining you next May here in Blackpool South.
I strongly feel Blackpool needs to move upmarket and modernise. Cities like Manchester and Liverpool and fellow seaside towns like Brighton have successfully reinvented themselves as modern, vibrant cosmopolitan cities. This is my ambition for Blackpool. I am fed up of us playing second fiddle to everywhere else for shopping, entertainment etc. Even Preston is overtaking us much to my dismay! I want to see more department stores and quality retailers in Blackpool to help attract more discerning visitors to Blackpool and offer Fylde Coast residents a better shopping offer stopping them going to Preston. Also I feel we are desperately short of decent restaurants. There are some hidden gems like West Coast Rock but where are the contemporary eateries like TGI Fridays, Caffe Nero, Nandos etc?
So in a nutshell my vision for Blackpool is modernisation and diversification. Hopefully when Gordon Marsden and Joan Humble are gone we may get some progress. I look forward to hearing more of your views on Blackpool’s future Mr Maynard. Keep up the good work