Reference
The Great British Holiday: Blackpool
29/07/10 13:17
The BBC documentary 'Great British Holiday: Blackpool’ on BBC iPlayer.
(Available until 12:44am Thursday 5th August 2010)
“It’s a fight in which billions are at stake, ministers are derided, partners fall out and transvestites have a key role.”
Last night I watched the documentary ‘Great British Holiday: Blackpool’ on BBC iPlayer. Directed by Patrick Forbes, this film offers ‘behind-the-scene’ access to Blackpool Council’s bid to land the UK’s first super casino during the summer of 2006.
This really struck a chord with me as I was at the beginning of my own creative exploration of the town with my photography project ‘Blackpool: An Unimagined Space?’ while this documentary was being filmed. There are a number of people and organisations that I recognise and personally met with during this time to discuss how creative photography could be used to transform perceptions of the town. Now, in hindsight, I can see why there was little interest in my photographs of Blackpool in 2006, there wasn’t a single photograph of a casino in my portfolio to promote the “Masterplan”. This may sound cynical, but it’s the truth.
Another (sad) truth, which is highlighted in this documentary, is the lack of a ‘Plan B’ from Blackpool Council. Their plan for redevelopment and tackling the fall in tourism relied heavily (if not entirely) upon winning the regional casino licence.
If you don’t want to know the result of Blackpool’s casino bid please look away now...
It’s not all doom and gloom though, the film also shows how local multi-millionaire entrepreneur Basil Newby (owner of the fabulous ‘Funny Girls’) continues to attract punters in their thousands to his clubs, bars and theatres.
There’s hope yet.
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Contemporary Views & Their Origins
18/11/08 22:16
For today's blog post I thought I would share the opening section of the first chapter from my MA dissertation paper. The full paper will be made available in January 2009 as a downloadable PDF for any students wishing to read it. I’ve included the table of contents for dissertation below:
- Introduction
- Chapter One: Contemporary Views & Their Origins
- Chapter Two: A Self-Perpetuating Myth?
- Case Study 1: ReBlackpool & ‘The Resort Masterplan’
- Case Study 2: Admission All Classes: Re-branding The Carnivalesque
- Case Study 3: Bloomfield Talks
- Chapter Three: Photographic Representations of Blackpool
- Chapter Four: Blackpool: An Unimagined Space?
- Conclusion
- References
- Bibliography
- Figures
‘With reference to contemporary perceptions of Blackpool, discuss the contribution of the visual and built environment to experiences, mythologies and social relationships to that of the transient and residential populous’.
Chapter One: Contemporary Views & Their Origins (Excerpt)
“Universally known and visited by tourists from around the world, few towns conjure up such stirring impressions as Blackpool. Cheerfully unpretentious and brash with all the trimmings expected of a traditional seaside town. Blackpool remains the iconic British resort. But there is more to its richly coloured history than you may think”.
(Thompson, D. (2007))
Often cited in the introductions of many historical books on Blackpool is the writer William Hutton of Birmingham. In 1788, he visited the town and described the topography of the landscape that lay before him. Hutton’s poetic descriptions (characteristic of many literary works of the late 18th century) offers an early insight into how the land may have looked before it was colonized and, how he personally saw the inhabitants living there at the time. Hutton (1788) notes that “about fifty houses grace the sea-bank”, although, he adds “it does not merit the name of a village, because they are scattered to the extent of a mile”. Hutton also describes in fine detail, the recreational behavior of those inhabiting the houses and lodgings. “In some of these are lodged the inferior class, whose sole motive for visiting this airy region is health”. This is an early indication as to the origins of Blackpool’s long-standing appeal to those who enjoy sunbathing and being ‘beside the seaside’. In Hutton’s time there was certainly an emerging love amongst the social elite for bathing and “drinking seawater”. The seaside and its potential to improve ones health must have certainly been a magnetic force for a population that would soon see the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in the mid 19th Century. With industrialization came the age of the railway, which enabled people to travel from the smoggy city for an opportunity to experience and enjoy the fresh sea air on the Fylde coast.
As the town became increasingly popular in the nineteen-twenties with city-dwellers wishing to get away from the daily grind of working life, new buildings, structures and spaces were designed and implemented by the Blackpool Corporation to entertain and cater for the masses. These included open-air swimming pools, the Illuminations and Stanley Park (which is one of the only green spaces available in the town). The construction of this new visual and built environment was quite profound at the time and definitely helped place Blackpool firmly on the map as a Mecca for working-class entertainment. Blackpool had been way ahead of its time back in 1879, when it became the first town in the UK to introduce electric street lighting installed along the promenade. This was, of course, what latter became known as the Illuminations and people still flock to the resort to enjoy and admire their colourful glow. The introduction of these few electric streetlights marked the beginning of the town’s cultural identity and unique character that became synonymous with popular entertainment. The three-piers on Blackpool’s seaside fringe also became notorious with being working class playgrounds for pleasure, but also celebrated the town’s Victorian history and heritage...(continued)
© Yannick Dixon 2008
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