Visit Blackpool Places

Visit Blackpool Place – things to do & explore

  

Blackpool places overview by Walkfo

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Blackpool history

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Toponymy

Blackpool gets its name from a historic drainage channel (possibly Spen Dyke) that ran over a peat bog, discharging discoloured water into the Irish Sea, which formed a black pool . People originating from Blackpool are called Sandgrownians or Sandgrown’uns .

Early history

A 13,500-year-old elk skeleton was found with man-made barbed bone points on Blackpool Old Road in Carleton in 1970 . The Fylde was also home to a British tribe, the Setantii (the “dwellers in the water”) a sub-tribe of the Brigantes, who from about AD80 were controlled by Romans from their fort at Dowbridge, Kirkham . During Roman occupation the area was covered by oak forests and bog land .

Taking the cure

In 1781, Thomas Clifton and Sir Henry Hoghton built a private road to Blackpool . A regular stagecoach service from Manchester and Halifax was established . The 1801 census records the town’s population at 473 . The growth was accelerated by the actions of Henry Banks, often considered the “Father of Blackpool”

Arrival of the railways

The most significant event in the early growth of Blackpool occurred in 1846, with the completion of a branch line to Blackpool from Poulton on the main Preston and Wyre Joint Railway line from Preston to Fleetwood . By 1851, the town’s population was over 2,500, and the North Pier was completed in 1863 . In 1878, the Winter Gardens complex opened, incorporating ten years later the Opera House, said to be the largest in Britain outside London .

Electricity

In 1879, Blackpool became the first municipality in the world to have electric street lighting . In 1885 one of the world’s first electric tramways was laid down as a conduit line running from Cocker Street to Dean Street on the Promenade . By the 1890s, the town had a population of 35,000 and could accommodate 250,000 holidaymakers .

Towards the present

By 1920, Blackpool claimed around eight million visitors per year, three times as many as its nearest British rivals . Stanley Park was laid out in 1920 and opened in 1926 . Littlewoods opened its first department store in the town in 1937 . The Free Polish Air Force made its headquarters in exile at Blackpool in Talbot Square .

Blackpool culture & places

Music

Reginald Dixon, MBE, ARCM, who held the position as organist at the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool from March 1930 until March 1970 made and sold more recordings than any other organist. Blackpool Symphony Orchestra was founded by Percy Dayman in 1920. It presents an annual series of concerts and organises educational and community outreach projects. Frank Sinatra performed at the Opera House on several occasions in the 1950s. A 1953 concert was recorded and eventually released on CD many years later. The Beatles had a long and varied association with Blackpool, including a significant event in John Lennon’s early childhood and multiple gigs in the town between 1963 and 1965. Formed in Blackpool in 1963, The Rockin’ Vickers were a rock and roll beat combo most notable for featuring Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, then known as Ian Frasier, later of Hawkwind and more famously Motörhead, as a bassist and vocalist. The band recorded four singles before splitting in 1967. The other Rockin’ Vickers guitarist, Nick Gribbon, continues to perform in pubs in and around Blackpool as Nick Unlimited, with an open door policy that has given many talented younger Blackpool musicians their first opportunity to play live. The Executives were a Blackpool band who recorded a handful of singles in the 1960s including the original 1964 version of March of the Mods, which became a top 40 hit for Joe Loss and His Orchestra in the same year. The tune was written by Tony Carr, the father of Executives’ frontman Roy Carr, who later became a well-known music journalist with New Musical Express and the author of several books on popular music and executive editor of music magazines including New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Vox. Executives bass player Glenn Cornick became a founding member of Jethro Tull, later forming Wild Turkey. Tony Williams, The Executives’ guitarist, joined Stealers Wheel soon after its formation in 1972 and also briefly joined Jethro Tull in 1978 as a touring bassist. Additionally, the nascent Jethro Tull, then called The Blades, featuring future Tull members Ian Anderson, John Evan, Jeffrey Hammond, and Barrie Barlow, formed as students in Blackpool in the early 1960s. Blackpool was notorious for having imposed an indefinite ban on the Rolling Stones from performing in the town in 1964 after a riot broke out among the audience who had found their performance “suggestive” during their concert at the Empress Ballroom. The ban was lifted forty-four years later in March 2008. The Jimi Hendrix – Experience video and DVD features concert footage of Hendrix’s performance at Blackpool’s Opera House in 1967. Psychedelic rock band Complex were formed in Blackpool in 1968 and self-released two albums in 1971. Only 99 copies of their self-titled debut were pressed and this extremely rare vinyl album has since been described as “one of the “Holy Trinity” items of rare British Psychedelia”. The band continued to play until 1978 when they disbanded with the onset of punk. Limited edition remastered versions of both Complex albums were released by Guersson in 2012. A number of bands from Blackpool achieved a level of success during the punk and post-punk era. Factory Records’ Section 25 were formed in 1977 in Poulton-le-Fylde, a small market town on the outskirts of Blackpool, as were the 1976–79 version of punk band Skrewdriver, who recorded several singles and an album for the Chiswick label (the skinhead “white power” rock act of the same name that gained notoriety later, contained only one member of the original band). Both bands claimed Blackpool as their place of origin. Another Blackpool band signed to Factory was Tunnelvision, who recorded just one single for the label in 1981. When Barry Lights relocated his Lightbeat record label from Leeds to Blackpool in 1981, the label’s first Blackpool signing was electronic rock band Zoo Boutique. After releasing the debut single by Fleetwood punk band One Way System, Lights set up specialist hardcore punk Beat the System label. Blackpool punk band The Fits were amongst the first to benefit, eventually releasing four indie chart hit singles in 1982–85. The Membranes who featured John Robb initially set up their own Vinyl Drip record label in 1981 before achieving three indie top 20 hits from 1984 to 1986, reaching number 6 in John Peel’s Festive Fifty in 1984 and making a pre-recorded appearance on Channel 4 rock show The Tube. The Ceramic Hobs formed in 1985 and to date have “made more than 30 uncategorisable releases on vinyl, CD and cassette for many different worldwide record labels”. Blackpool musician Lucifer’s “Cyber Punk Rock” EPs of 1994 contained the first full vocal songs intended for playback on a computer. 21st century musical exports from Blackpool include Karima Francis, The Locals, who first appeared on BBC Introducing when they were just 15, Goonies Never Say Die, Litterbug, Aiden Grimshaw who came ninth on the 2010 series of X Factor, The Senton Bombs, UFX/Uncle Fester and Little Boots, who topped the BBC Sound of… poll in 2009. The White Stripes recorded their first official DVD, Under Blackpool Lights, at the Empress Ballroom in the Winter Gardens on 27 and 28 January 2004. Get Up Kids guitarist Jim Suptic’s Kansas City, Missouri indie rock band Blackpool Lights is named after the DVD title. In 2005, a compilation album, The Ugly Truth About Blackpool Volume One, chronologically documenting the best of Blackpool indie rock music from 1977 to 2005, was released by Andy Higgins’ JSNTGM Records in conjunction with the Arts Council, Blackpool Evening Gazette and Blackpool Council. Volume 2, showcasing the best Blackpool indie bands active in 2005/6 was released the following year. Other Blackpool recording artists on JSNTGM include Sick 56, Erase Today and Litterbug. Each August since 2006, Blackpool has been the venue for the largest festival of punk rock in the world, the annual Rebellion Festival, which is held in the Winter Gardens over four days and features over 200 punk bands. In early 2013, Grime music in Blackpool increased dramatically with the invention of BGMedia. They now have over 48 million views as they were made famous after becoming viral on YouTube. In August 2018, German Indie label Firestation Records released in Europe and Japan an eleven track retrospective album ‘Illuminated’, on Vinyl and CD, by the late 1980s Blackpool Indie Band ‘Rik Rak’. In 1937 George Formby’s song “With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock”, was banned by BBC radio for having suggestive lyrics. The Kinks’ song “Autumn Almanac” contains the following lines: “… I go to Blackpool for my holidays/Sit in the open sunlight …” “She Sold Blackpool Rock” was a minor success in 1969 for Honeybus as the follow up to their 1968 top ten hit single “I Can’t Let Maggie Go”. Graham Nash’s semi-autobiographical song “Military Madness” begins “In an upstairs room in Blackpool / By the side of a northern sea / The army had my father / And my mother was having me”. Paul McCartney recorded a song entitled “Blackpool” amongst a number of demo home recordings in the years 1971 and 1972. The Jethro Tull song “Up the ‘Pool” from the 1972 Living in the Past album is about Blackpool, singer Ian Anderson and other members of the band’s childhood home. Another Tull track about the beach attractions of Blackpool is “Big Dipper”, from the 1976 album Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!. In the early 1980s the then Blackpool based band The Membranes used the town as the subject matter for their “Tatty Seaside Town” 1988 single, which was later covered by Therapy? Other songs written about Blackpool include Oh Blackpool by The Beautiful South and several different songs called “Blackpool”, by Sham 69, Macc Lads, Roy Harper and The Delgados. “Blackpool” is also the title song from a production co-written with author Irvine Welsh and Vic Godard (Subway Sect) in 2002, later released as a four-song EP called Blackpool. A song called “Blackpool Fool” appears on the Frank Sidebottom album A, B, C & D (1997). Franz Ferdinand’s 2013 “Love Illumination” single was originally called “Blackpool Illuminati”. Songs that mention Blackpool in the lyrics include “Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier”, the opening track of the Manic Street Preachers album Everything Must Go, which contains the lyric “20ft high off Blackpool Promenade” amongst other references to Blackpool. The opening line of Soft Cell’s 1982 “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” hit (later a hit for David Gray in 1998) “Standing at the door of the Pink Flamingo, Crying in the rain” is believed to be a reference to Blackpool’s famous gay nightclub The Flamingo. Låpsley’s chillout song “Painter (Valentine)” includes the lines “you can paint these wings and make me fly / crush coming over like the R.E.M kind / orange in the colour like Blackpool on the sunrise”. Folk songs written about the town include The Houghton Weavers anthem “The Blackpool Belle” (“Oh the Blackpool Belle was a getaway train that went from Northern stations. What a beautiful sight on a Saturday night bound for the illuminations”), Jasper Carrot’s “Day Trip To Blackpool” (“Didn’t we have a miserable time the day we went to Blackpool? An ‘orrible day, we got drunk on the way And spent our money on chips and bingo…”) and Mike Harding’s single “Talking Blackpool Blues” (“Well my Mam and Dad and Gran and me / We went to Blackpool by sea / It rained and rained for most of the day / But we all got tanned in a funny sort of way”).

Media

Blackpool has a pioneering publicly owned Municipal wireless network, Wi-Fi which covers the entire town centre & promenade & beach front . Local radio is provided by Radio Wave, a commercial radio station based on Mowbray Drive in Blackpool . Blackpool Gay Radio provides a part-time radio service catering for the local gay community .

Sport

Blackpool has two main venues for boxing fight nights, the Tower Circus Arena and the Winter Gardens, which both hold regular fight nights throughout the year. Events at these venues have been screened on Sky Sports, British Eurosport and Channel M. Blackpool is home to many current and former professional boxers including Brian Rose (born in Birmingham), Jack Arnfield, Jeff Thomas (born in Dordrecht), Mathew Ellis (born in Oldham), Matty Askin (born in Barnsley), RP Davies and Scott Cardle. Blackpool Cricket Club are Blackpool’s major cricketing team; they won the League Cup in 2013 and were National Champions in 1990. They won the Lancashire Cup on eight occasions between 1973 and 1996 and were League Champions fourteen times. Their home is in the grounds of Stanley Park, which also hosts Lancashire County Cricket Club. The town’s professional football club is Blackpool F.C., who have spent 31 seasons in the top division and won the 1953 FA Cup Final. There are other, smaller football clubs located within Blackpool, including A.F.C. Blackpool, Blackpool Wren Rovers and Squires Gate. There are three golf clubs in Blackpool. Blackpool North Shore Golf Club opened in 1904, moving to its present site on Knowle Hill in 1927; the new course was designed by Harry Colt. In 1926, an Alister MacKenzie designed course opened within Stanley Park; it is home to Blackpool Park Golf Club. The newest addition is Herons’ Reach Golf Resort, which was designed by Peter Allis and Clive Clark and opened in 1992. Blackpool Borough were the first professional rugby league club in the town. However, they eventually folded after leaving the town in 1987. Blackpool Panthers were formed in 2004 and played in Co-operative Championship One. They ground-shared at Bloomfield Road then in 2007 at Woodlands Memorial Ground, the home of Fylde Rugby Club in the neighbouring town of Lytham St Annes. The club ceased to exist after the 2010 season due to lack of finance. Blackpool Stanley, Blackpool Scorpions and Blackpool Sea Eagles are amateur rugby league clubs in the town. The resort formerly held the now discontinued Northern Rail Cup Final at Bloomfield Road, a Rugby League knockout competition for all clubs outside of the Super League attracting many thousands of visitors. Blackpool is currently home to the annual ‘Summer Bash’ rugby league tournament held at Bloomfield Road, where an entire round of Championship matches are played in the city to showcase the sport. Blackpool also has a rugby union club, called Blackpool RUFC. Their home ground is Norbreck Rugby Ground. The annual Blackpool Marathon is staged on the Promenade each April. Thousands of competitors run on the closed Promenade, organised by Fylde Coast Runners. The Pleasure Beach’s Horseshoe Show Bar was home to professional wrestling events throughout the season. These were promoted by Bobby Baron. The bar shows were home to a “Wrestling Booth”, where members of the public could challenge the wrestlers for cash prizes for each round they survived. These challenges would be taken by shooters: wrestlers skilled in the brutal submission holds of Catch Wrestling, which they could deploy to defend the prize money even against skilled amateur wrestlers. Booths such as these had been a foundation stone of the professional wrestling industry since the 19th century – Barron’s booth is reputed to have been the last of its kind in the world. Numerous renowned professional wrestlers worked as carnival shooters at the booth, including future WWE star William Regal (then known as Steve Regal), his then tag team partner Robbie Brookside, promoter, trainer and champion Shak Khan (who runs a school for teaching Catch Wrestling in Blackpool), future British Ladies’ Wrestling champion Klondyke Kate, and others including Dave Duran, (John Palin) The booth ended with Baron’s death in 1994, although other promoters have since held shows in the bar. Additionally, the Tower Circus was a frequent venue for wrestling shows. A photograph of noted heel Jack Pye in action at the circus was, for some time in the late 2000s, displayed by the entrance to the circus. The tradition was revived by All Star Wrestling when they promoted a summer season at the venue in 2008, and a similar summer season in 2012 at the Winter Gardens. WWE held a tournament at the Empress Ballroom on 14–15 January 2017 to crown the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion. In attendance were Regal and WWE legend Triple H, who commented to local journalists, “Blackpool has this reputation. It’s easy to get to, a lot of people come here and when they come here they lose it and that’s what we wanted. I almost feel like there wasn’t really another choice..” Tyler Bate won the inaugural tournament to become the first WWE United Kingdom Champion. Several renowned wrestlers have invested in Blackpool – Kendo Nagasaki owns the Trades Hotel and KAOS Nightclub, Rex Strong (Barry Shearman, born 1942 died 2017) owned the Hadley Hotel and Johnny Saint also owned a block of holiday flats in the town. Shirley Crabtree, later better known as Big Daddy, worked as a lifeguard on Central Pier. He was reunited, on a 1979 edition of ITV’s This Is Your Life, with a woman whose life he had saved.

Blackpool geography / climate

Physical

Blackpool rests in the middle of the western edge of The Fylde, which is a coastal plain atop a peninsula . The seafront consists of a 7-mile sandy beach, with a flat coastline in the south of the district . The majority of the town district is built up, with very little semi-rural space .

Climate

Blackpool has, like all of the UK, a temperate maritime climate according to the Köppen climate classification system . The absolute minimum temperature stands at −15.1 °C (4.8 °F), recorded during December 1981, however −18.3 °C was recorded in January 1881 . The highest temperature to occur in recent years is 33.5 °C during July 2015 . Rainfall averages slightly less than 900 mm (35 in), with over 1 mm of precipitation occurring on 143 days of the year .

You can visit Blackpool places and use Walkfo Blackpool to discover the history & things to do in Blackpool whilst walking with our free digital tour app. Walkfo Blackpool has 77 places on our Blackpool map with history, culture & travel facts that you explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Blackpool, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route – you choose where you want to go, when you want to go and Walkfo Blackpool will keep up.
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With millions of places including tourist walks, Blackpool travel destinations, National Trust locations converted to audio experiences, our Blackpool places AI guide will help you get the best from your visit to Blackpool & the surrounding areas. The Blackpool places app for iPhone & Android delivers hidden history, interesting culture and amazing facts in interactive audio stories in response to where you walk at National Heritage sites, tourist attractions, historic locations or city streets, with no predefined walk map requirements.

“The Walkfo AI has curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 77 audio facts unique to Blackpool places forming an interactive Blackpool map for you to explore.”

Walkfo’s Visit Blackpool Places Map
77 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Blackpool historic spot	Blackpool tourist destination	Blackpool plaque	Blackpool geographic feature
Walkfo Blackpool tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Blackpool

  

Best Blackpool places to visit

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Blackpool has many places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Blackpool’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Blackpool’s information audio spots:

Blue Flyer Blue Flyer (formerly Zipper Dipper and Warburtons Milk Roll-A-Coaster) is a Wooden roller coaster at Nickelodeon Land, Blackpool Pleasure Beach in Blackpool, England. It was built in 1934 and is believed to have been built by Charlie Paige.

The Big One (roller coaster) The Big One is a steel roller coaster located at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in Blackpool, Lancashire, in the United Kingdom. The ride opened to the public on 28 May 1994 as the tallest and steepest roller coaster in the world. It held the record until 1996 when Fujiyama opened at Fuji-Q Highland in Japan.

Revolution (Blackpool Pleasure Beach) Revolution was Europe’s first fully looping roller coaster. The ride consists of two raised sections of track with a vertical loop in the centre. It is one of only three Arrow Development shuttle coasters in operation.

Noor-A-Madina Mosque Noor-A-Madina Ahle Sunnat Mosque is a Sunni Islam mosque in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. Mosque is located in the centre of Blackpool.

Icon (roller coaster) ICON is a launched roller coaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in Blackpool, Lancashire. The ride opened on 25 May 2018 at a total cost of £16.25 million. The name “Icon” was announced on 10 April 2017 with the tagline, “Dare To Ride”

Avalanche (Blackpool Pleasure Beach) Avalanche is a steel bobsled roller coaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in Blackpool, England. It was designed for the park by Mack of Germany in 1988. It is the first and, as of 2020, the only bobsled rollercoaster in the United Kingdom.

Infusion (roller coaster) Infusion is an inverted steel roller coaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Lancashire. It is a 689m standard “Mark 3” model Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster.

Holy Trinity Church, Blackpool Holy Trinity Church is an Anglican church in Blackpool, Lancashire. Completed in 1895, the present church replaced one from 1836. Designed by Richard Knill Freeman in the Decorated Gothic style, it has been designated a Grade II listed building.

Blackpool Victoria Hospital Blackpool Victoria Hospital, known locally as “The Vic”, is the main hospital for Blackpool and the Fylde Coast. The hospital is managed by the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Kingscote Park, Blackpool Kingscote Park is a municipal park extending over 98 acres (40 ha; 0.40 km) in Layton, a suburb of Blackpool in the county of Lancashire. The park is the second largest park within Blackpool after Stanley Park.

Visit Blackpool plaques