27 replies to this topic

[Alan]

Who remembers when Southport had a proper funfair with a huge Roller Coaster and Noah's Ark?

They used to run pleasure flights from a makeshift runway at Ainsdale end of the beach, about a mile walk from the fairground. The plane flew around Blackpool Tower and back. My mother took me on it in 1945 as it was recommended as a cure for whooping cough. I've still got the signed souvenir postcard somewhere. It was a Tiger Moth biplane

In those days Southport was an upmarket Blackpool. It was very much a Jewish dormitory town for Liverpool business people. Hard to imagine how nice it was when I was last there for the flowershow. It was just a rundown dump. Even the Kingsway Casino seemed to be no more. The surrounding area was still nice but all the bits like Lord Street that I remembered as a bit classy seemed well, tawdry.

[Griffin]

Shortly after returning here last summer, we went shopping in Southport, and inadvertently walked in on the 12th of July celebrations. The town was full of Orangemen, all apparently from Scotland, but there was not a bowler hat in sight. They were mostly young skinhead types. Fife and drum bands could be heard everywhere, all playing different tunes at once, and then it deteriorated into some serious drinking. The litter at the end of the day was something to behold. Otherwise, the place has become tawdry, even in Lord Street, although it's a nicer place to shop than St. Helens. The Pleasure Beach, I understand, has gone, but I'd be intrigued to know what's proposed to replace it. I thought I heard something about apartments.

[eddiedunc]

Probably an Orange Lodge

[Hugh]

Southport is now part of Sefton and run fron Bootle need I say more, they are trying to get someone to use the funfair ground as a funfair, so they say, but if it is like the rest of old Southport it will be flats or more suppermarket on the sea front

[margaret2r]

It's so sad to see all the seaside towns becoming so run down. Before the war and in the 40's they were beautiful and full of life. Now they seem to be taken over by hooligans. (what word do they use for that today) Guess anyone that can, is trotting overseas for their hols.

[brunty]

i go to southport every week and each time we go it looks more dirty,lord st is full of dog shite, and litter
re the fairground i was told it would be apartments, same as hugh says its the people in charge for it to be like that.

[Alan]

margaret2r, on Oct 31 2007, 06:59 PM, said:

It's so sad to see all the seaside towns becoming so run down.

Margaret, even the ones that were so middle class forty years ago have gone the same way. A couple of years ago My wife and I had a weekend in Torquay; a sort of trip back down Memory Lane taken on a whim. We stayed in the best hotel in Torquay, the sort of place we could only dream about when we were last there in the late sixties. The town, hotel and restaurants were dumps with large areas of the town infested with drug addicts and weirdos. The reality is that British seaside holidays are so yesterday with cheap air-travel

[eddiedunc]

Alan, in 1964 my wife and I and her mother and father had a wqeek in an hotel in Babbacombe. Whilst there. we did the usual, Cockington Forge, Widdecombe in the Moor and of course spent some time in Torquay, it was delightful. In 2000 I spenmt a week, as an additional holiday at Widemouth Bay. On the way home I suggested that we drove over to Torquay to revive old memories. What a shithole I couldn't believe it, I wish I hadn't bothered.

[brunty]

i used to go to jersey years ago it was very nice,but each time we went you could see a change especially st.helier
the streets are dirty and grass growing on pavements minor things.
not been for a few years i would sooner remember it like first time we went.

[rooster]

Rhyl has gone the same way.
I knwo there wasn't much to talk about, but with no cash injection of any worth, it was left to run down for years.
The funfair has now been demolished. I have heard that a supermarket and apartments are being built.
I am 41 and used to holiday there all the time in the 70's. I loved it and even had my honeymoon there (times were hard)
But I suppose all things have to move on.

[moody]

Colwyn Bay has gone the same way I'm afraid, full of druggies and low life, most of the large houses that always looked so well kept and clean are now filthy flats for the dss and dolelites, not a very nice place anymore.

[woodsman]

I like torquay, i reckon the gardens are really well maintained, unlike some of those in st helens, the main street is pleasant and full of people enjoying themselves in a good array of shops. The beach is clean and the walk around the marina is interesting and enjoyable. As for Babbacome, up on the cliff is fine a place as any to enjoy some fish and chips from the chippie which has won the best chippie award on quite a few occassions. I wonder if it is an age thing that everything is now perceived as being so grim!!!!!!!

[Alan]

No not really Woodsman but in another way maybe! I don't think that we were sensitised to litter, faded paintwork and unruly behaviour forty odd years ago. We had nothing much to compare places against. Many of us, having since travelled a lot, make the comparisons and find Blackpool, Southport, N Wales coast and Torquay second, if not third, rate

[eddiedunc]

woodsman, on Nov 18 2007, 08:26 PM, said:

 I wonder if it is an age thing that everything is now perceived as being so grim!!!!!!!

In a way yes. Those of us who are older are remembering these places from some considerable time ago, before the decline had set in. In the me
ntime we have been further afield and 
experienced a higher standard of amenities. 

[familyman]

Quite like taking a trip over to Scarborough.
It hasn't changed very much since I first went there 40 odd years ago.