Blackpool History, Mystery, Heritage and Hauntings

NEWS from the council website today !  Talbot Gateway/Tram Extension work to resume next week. Some good news as demolition of the Wilko store will commence next week (1 June) paving the way for the long awaited tramway extension to be completed. According to the council, the works schedule will be as follows: -Demolition of Wilko’s building, Talbot Road - June to December 2020 -Construction of the high street underpass - November 2020 to 30th April 2021 -Construction of the Holiday Inn Hotel - October 2020 to April 2022 -Tram extension and track completion - January to May 2021 We will strive to bring back our weekly updates series while maintaining current guidelines and social distancing measures. The following was posted -  The next phase of Blackpool’s town centre regeneration is set to get underway in the first week of June as contractors prepare to start on site at Talbot Gateway.  This phase of development will see the demolition of the e

It looks like work on the North Station extension will indeed resume next April. Council documents have confirmed that Wilko's lease expires then, so demolition will happen regardless of whether a new site for them is ready (presumably they will move to a temporary location). The full schedule looks like this: April 2020: demolition and start of works. March 2021: trams start run to a temporary terminus located where entrance to Wilko is now. First quarter of 2022: trams start to run to the final terminus next to the new underpass. Time to finally get this done so other projects are progressed in due course. and more ... I was in Town yesterday and on the roof taking shots of course - when I asked the chap who was running the car park he said March of next year -  also he would have to look for a new job. 

Regeneration specialist Muse is inviting bids to build a 142-bed hotel in Blackpool’s central business district. The Holiday Inn hotel, which will be located on the site of the current Wilkinson’s building adjacent to Blackpool North railway station, forms part of the second phase of Muse Developments’ and Blackpool Council’s £100m Talbot Gateway regeneration scheme.   The five-storey building will feature a restaurant, bar, conferencing facilities and ground floor shops. A temporary 127-space surface level car park and access improvements connecting the proposed new tram station and the railway station, also form part of the plans. The works require the demolition of the existing Wilko’s retail store currently occupying the site. Shortlisted firms will be invited to submit tenders in September with a view to work starting in Spring 2020. s a local authority Blackpool Council can’t just dig up the roads and build a tramway. An application for an ord

Image drawn by Brian Hughes Devonshire Road was a community hospital that offered both inpatient and outpatient facilities to residents of Blackpool and its surrounding areas. The hospital housed the Fylde Coast's Dermatology Services and had a Renal Dialysis Unit, a Rehabilitation Ward, Dermatology Ward and a Clinical Skills Laboratory on site. 1891 Blackpool Isolation Hospital was opened on Devonshire Road on the 7 th of July. This original sanatorium, behind the cemetery, was demolished in 1906 after being kept briefly for smallpox isolation. The new hospital was formally opened on the 26 th of March on the opposite corner of Devonshire Road and Talbot Road. Still called Blackpool Sanatorium, it soon became known as Devonshire Road Infectious Diseases Hospital until 1954; locals knew it as “The Fever Hospital”. The hospital was finally demolished in 2007. As some of you know I run the popular group  https://www.facebook.com/groups/blackpoolspast/ wh