Blackpool's Palatine Buildings !

Let us explore the history of Blackpool's Palatine Buildings!

A prime corner site on Blackpool’s Central Promenade is undergoing a complete reconstruction to create the resort’s first five star hotel and a museum detailing Blackpool’s rich history.

 

1866 - Palatine Buildings, Palatine Hotel, and The Palatine Buildings were constructed onthe Promenade this year, just to the south of the Royal Hotel, and in 1879, the 120-bed Palatine Hotel wasbuilt next door, on the corner with Bank Hey Street. Queens Terrace – a row of houses built in 1848 – was demolished to make way. The Palatine had its own ballroom, lounge bar, new lounge, and dining saloon.
For a short time, it was known as the Palatine Family and Commercial Hotel, but by 1883, had reverted to
its shorter name. Queen’s Terrace and the Royal Hotel stables block had stood on the site previously.

                                                          merge image by Andrew Ayre

By the 1940s, the Palatine was well known for the Electric Newsreel display on its roof, in front of the
distinctive round turret. During the 1960s, the Palatine Hotel’s Beat City nightclub was a popular local haunt.
The Palatine Hotel, the New Inn and Central Hotel, and smaller shops like O’Hagan’s Tea Bar (selling “Jugs
of Tea for the Sands”), were demolished in spring 1973, to make way for redevelopment. The New Inn’s famous cannon was taken to Grundy House Museum. For several years, the Palatine site was filled with fairground rides, as was the patch of spare ground on the Southern side of New Bonny Street.

The present Palatine Buildings were opened for use in 1976, and the Coral Island amusement centre was
opened there, by comedian Ken Dodd, on the 19th of May 1978. Lit up at night, it is the largest indoor arcade in Europe with its name written on its roof – visible from 2,000 feet in the air.
The complex initially boasted the Flagship Showbar, the Little Shuntin’ Takeaway, the Viennese Clock Restaurant, the New Inn pub, the Joker’s Bar, the Coral Social Club, a self-service restaurant, shop, and bars. It also offered a very large open area filled with amusement machines and children’s rides. This areawas advertised as the “Kiddies Wonderland”.

Later, on the first floor, it had the Friendly Rooster, the Sundowner Grill, and the Yellow Submarine
nightclub and cabaret bar (which became Jellies in December 1986 - named after the ITMA character Crystal Jellybottoms). The first-floor area briefly became the Golden Wheels roller disco from 1981, and in October 1986, The Palace Nightclub opened in its place, with its own Sands Disco.
In its heyday, the Palace was one of the most famous nightclubs in the country, appearing on television regularly. In the TV programme “The Hitman and Her”, revellers flocked to see the likes of Hitman Pete Waterman and his sidekick Michaela Strachan bring stars of the day, like Jason Donovan, Sinitta, Rick Astley and Sonia, to the stage. It had 2 dance floors, 5 bars and its own restaurant, together with the “largest moving lighting effects installed in any discotheque in the world”. It closed in 2004

Nightclubs have featured prominently at the site with the Yellow Submarine operating in the basement of the building before being re-opened as Jellies in 1986.The Sub, as it was known, was operated as a fun pub and underwent major refurbishment to emerge as a new disco showbar. The name Jellies came from an Itma (It’s That Man Again) character Crystal Jellybottoms.After topping the night club scene for neary two decades, The Palace closed its doors in 2003, leaving the building disused until plans were announced in 2010 for the Sands Venue.The footbridge became a magnet for graffiti and was eventually closed to the public. It became an eyesore and was pulled down in 2009.  

The majority of the footbridge across the central Promenade was demolished on the 15th of July. It hadbeen constructed in 1976. A small section, between the Palatine building and the TK Maxx store was left,but was finally demolished in April 2019.

Baron’s Discotheque opened at unit number 8 of the complex in 1986. This turned into Rio’s, and later Lineker’s Bar. The whole of the Coral Island was extensively refurbished in 1990, including the Flagship Cabaret Showbar, the Island Diner, the Sunset Bar, Sundowner Grill, Coral Island Social Club, and Shades Disco. An indoor monorail was added at this time. In 1994, the Golden Mile nightclub opened, and the
Love Shack was opened there in 1996, later becoming Klub DNA. Sands Venue opened on the first floor on August the 6th 2010, combining three restaurant-type eateries and cabaret. On the 20th of August 2015, the venue opened its 88-seat Sands Wild West Diner. In June 2018, the Palatine building began to be re-developed, by owner Peter Swann, into a 96-room 5 Star
hotel called the Sands Venue Resort Hotel, a restaurant, bistro, ground floor bar and restaurant, and an expanded Wild West Diner, plus a spa, barbers, hairdressers, nail salon and hotel shop. 

The building will also house the new Blackpool Entertainment Museum – to feature the history of the town, as opposed to
the artwork in the original museum on Queen Street. It will be built by Kirkham builders Warden and Co.

Entertainment Museum, Blackpool: In March, £4.4 million in funding was secured to pay for the first phase of the new Blackpool Entertainment Museum. With a working title of “Amuseum”, it will be built in the revamped
sands complex, in a new building called the Palatine Building.
“In partnership with the London-based Victoria and Albert Museum, the venue will display, collect,research, and celebrate collections related to popular entertainment, and is expected to open in 2021 andattract some 300,000 people every year”.
In June 2019, the final £4 million of funding was secured, to complete the total of £13 million needed. Showtown....

Extra information/picys, Blackpool's Past, Nick Moore, Blackpool Gazette, Juliette W Gregson Photography.