Touring Britain's Capital Of Seaside Poverty & Decline 🇬🇧

so what's life like in Blackpool it's crackheads bag heads piss heads stabbings all kinds of on is CH mate it's tough It's hard it's um you know it's a lower end people are struggling you know it's drink and drugs have infested a place but all British Resorts they're their ass welcome to Blackpool a Seaside town that rough that they have destroyed old cars upside down on the beach I can't even begin to imagine the story of how this old Persia ended up upside down on Blackpool Beach and another one out there look Blackpool is probably the most requested Seaside town for me to visit from people people that watch this Channel and I've been waiting for the right person to show me around I need a true local to tell me the story of this declining town so I've reached out to Steven a wonderful YouTuber with a channel called Walk On The Wildside and he's going to show me around today Stephen what the hell's going on mate I have no idea now I've Leed the black for a long time in fact all my life and the very few times I've ever seen a car get stranded on the beach and to come down here today to see not one but two cars is just I I can't believe it what's going on you invite me all the way here to Blackpool and there's upside down persos on the beach what am I letting myself in for let's explore blackp mate so here mate we've got the two faces of Blackpool just before we walk back into the Town Center we've got the Swanky Hampton by Hilton and then we got the Waldorf which is kind of like in between the two and then this abandoned one here what's the story here in this Cresent well just down here on this present we've got uh an abandoned Hotel it's been closed for about 10 years it was shut down by the council I believe 2014 and ever since then it's just been going into uh worse state of dereliction year upon year well you can probably remember you're born and bred in Blackpool you can probably remember these places when they were booming well the thing is I I grew up in Blackpool and remember the 70s and and the decline in Blackpool actually started in the 70s but we didn't really notice that we we loved it you know we used to go to the pleasure Beach we'd go to the peers we go on the beach granded used to gred used to take us to a lot of places and for us it was brilliant growing up in blackp we didn't see the decline but the decline had started in the' 70s and continued by the time we got to the ' 80s I would say it was pretty obvious it was not it was pretty obvious then that something was wrong so this is the famous Blackpool pleasure Beach mate not much action at the moment when does it open I think it's going to be opening in March yeah we'll probably open at weekends to start off with yeah and uh I remember when used to be able to walk through it we used to come down here to the black pool pleasure Beach and used to be able to walk in walk in you get you buy your tickets for the ride for the big rides like the Big Dipper and all that sort of thing well they changed that um around about the Millennium or something like that where you now have to pay everybody has to pay to get into black po pleasure and a lot of people are not happy about it so more like an Al Towers like you pay for your ticket to get in rather than test in it so rather than just you you say that they used to pay per ride which makes it more affordable for families that can budget what the kids go on and now how much is is it to get in but the main reason I think it's around about £50 if you paying on the day which is not cheap is it but so for a family for it's 200 quid um yeah I might be wrong on that if if he's wrong we'll put it on screen yeah but one of the reasons why they chose to do that one of the reasons why is because back in the sort of ' 80s and '90s that sort of time when people used to just come into black po pleasure beit and just wants in and WS out used to get a lot of football fans and us be a lot of trouble and it keeps it kind of keeps the Riff Raff out of that the idea often in the comments people say Wendell you're visiting these Seaside towns in Winter of course they're going to be dead of course they're going to be depressing and there is accuracy to those comments but of course I will return to these Seaside towns in summer and see how vibrant they are see what the atmosphere is like and talk to the people when the tourists are around so you're visiting from the Midlands mate what do you think about black B these days well I'm not quite sure really because it's it's out of season but you know we going to have a look around and hopefully reminds us of when we was younger yeah a lot of people come because it brings back fun memories of we coach trips from the working Men's Clubs back in the day for the day trip and things like that and he just brings reminisces and we also played spot the tower as we driving in okay yeah says bringing back good memories yeah yeah I think that Blackpool has a warm place in so many people's hearts from yester year but unfortunately I don't know how much longer Blackpool can survive on Nostalgia we can't get away from this street corner because Steven's got so many fans in Blackpool but um we might get stopped a lot walking around I think this shows you that stepen is without doubt the premier Blackpool YouTuber and you should check his channel out it's called Walk On The Wildside A Walk On The Wildside I should [Music] say holy I'm thirsty walking around Britain talking to the general public I often get vloggers coton mouth I find myself reaching for a can of pop or an energy drink just to keep me going but we all know that these drinks are so bad for you it's not only for sugar that's in regular soft drinks but it's for nasty chemicals for in diet and zero soft drinks too I think it's time we all made a change and that's why I drink holy it combines great taste with a clear conscience it's a super fruity and no alternative with no artificial flavors or colorings and zero sugar it comes in under 20 calories per serving and has a taste Fit For A King simply mix holy with 500 Ms of water shake and enjoy I love the holy iced tea series my favorite flavor is apple green tea it's perfect because it's refreshing and revitalizing and it's great for a tea party here on the beach in Sunny black pool cheers they have loads of flavors I recommend you try out for starter sets first so you can find out what's your favorite flavor tell me what's your flavor use my code wendle 5 for £5 off your first order over $4.99 at uk. ho.com wendle so this is Station Road mate yeah Station Road yeah directly opposite the South Pier yeah yeah and uh it looks a little bit desolate at the moment uh but once we get into the season you know it'll be quite busy around here really yeah I just I came across this thought then when I was talking to a couple of your uh your fans on the street corner and you know the one guy mentioned that they love coming back here because it reminds them of really great great childhood memories do you think that Blackpool is almost trading on Nostalgia a little bit yeah yeah I think it is yeah cuz like a lot of people say that's what a lot of people say yeah we remember coming here a lot of people on my channel they they put comments in say I remember going there and when in the 60s you know and I remember what it used to be like and it's you know it brings back memories yeah but I mean the the thought to me is that one of the reasons why there might be some struggle here too now is that it does have to move forward doesn't it it does have to modernize it can't trade on Nostalgia forever and these generations of people that are nostalgic they're eventually they're not going to be with us we have to always move forward if we want Prosperity especially in our Seaside towns that's it yeah that that's a good point that yeah yeah so let's check out and we're going to turn take a left here are we mate and um when we drove in you start to see more of the um slightly dilapidated side of Blackpool [Applause] wow uh this is Bon Street Bon Street which are featured in my channel quite a few times it was once a really thriving shopping street this it's only a small section of Bond Street so that's quite a long street but this section here where the shops are uh we remember back in the 70s and the ' 80s coming there and it was the place to be really they had a wool wor they had record stores they had all these the these other shops and uh it was really really busy but if you look at it today it's yeah it's uh I can tell the difference between businesses that are shut down for the season and then businesses that are just shut down you can tell by the state of dis repair and as we're moving down this street we're starting to see a lot more disrepair um you know the unfortunately Blackpool is synonymous with boarded up buildings hotels you can see one over there this area of Bond Street does it get busier in summer or is it always like this um yeah it's pretty much the same even in the summer yeah so we're looking at it now in sort of back well last last day of February looks a bit Grim doesn't it uh what's the story with this here that's the old wwor that's the old walworth's it used to be yeah it used to be wwor until wwor shut down I can't remember when that was was it um was it mid 90s I can't remember and then it became the heart store as you see it's got the hearts logo on there and that was quite a popular store for a long many years many years the heart store in fact they used to sell Christmas decorations in their old all year round they got quite famous for it but since the heart store closed down which is probably getting on for I don't know maybe getting on for 10 years ago um the person that owns a building wants to knock it down and turn it into a car park and he's in a bit of a dispute with the council and because it's got this twoing and throwing dispute the council don't want to keep the building he wants a car park and and as because of that we've still got this you see this area of black pool Where We Are now South Shore there was a lot of landlords that bought up properties they actually bought up Streets back in the 80s and um and the council had to crap down on it because they were turning the these buildings which were all hotels or guest houses tur them into bed seits or hmos and eventually the council had to scrap down because they were just the areas were just running becoming so run down the people that we're moving into had problems alcoholism and mental health issues and all that sort of thing so they had to CRA down on it in the late 9s so what the council is doing now is they're trying to they have regulations now where there's only so many people you can have on or in in in an area they have like a mini a maximum amount of people to try to stop these uh Rogue landlords trying to cramp all these people in a lot of people in Blackpool live in very hard situations in the 2019 survey or study whatever you want to call it um highlighting the 10 most deprived areas in Britain jaywick was top but Blackpool had eight areas out of those 10 that were the most deprived areas in England so you know it's important that we also show how the people live in these areas of Blackpool it's not all tourism pleasure Beach and holidays by the seaside what's this street like what's what's life like working in retail in this area I like it it's fun mate you see you see a lot of stuff on this road mate but for the most part everybody's quite nice it's happening that's happening yeah so you you run the tattoo shop here on bthm road I do yeah what's this area of Blackpool like rough BR rough crackheads bag heads piss heads stabbings all kinds of M on here yeah pretty dangerous place at night uh mean depends you are it yeah same as everywhere depends who you are deps how you carry yourself if you're going to look like a victim you get shot like a victim if you're you're not going to get shot like a victim I mean there's a few BS around but there's a few few decent people yeah every Community is aiming it how's business in The Tattoo Shop yeah it is it it's mate it's tough mate it's tough It's hard it's um you know it's a lower end people are struggling you know he drinking drugs have infested the place and it's not you know they don't put enough money into the place you know that's that's my experience of it okay yeah yeah appreciate it thank you have a good day so what's life like in Black pool it's a all and why do you say that because the only the council only only care about the fronts yeah to get people to come in yeah us that live here have' got gruit we that's not there that's not so you get a couple of streets back and you see the real one street just walk down here just walk down there one Street behind front it's a all yes so what do you think about what that chap had to say yeah it was being quite uh blunt there wasn't to but if you if we say go from South here and all the way up to say even all the way up to Gin Square all you have to do really is probably come back one block from the prominade and you're in to um it's not a pretty sight in some part yeah and where we are now on Liv road is probably one of the most uh depressed parts of black lien Road between waterl Road where we've just been all the way up to the prominade is is uh yeah it's it's pretty depressing one GE what's it like walking around seeing all this every day I get used to it all the time used to it thinking about 3 four years I looked up here roughly okay you so this is the Apparently excellent Southshore Pit Stop Cafe so what's life like running a cafe in this area of black pool well we're only about s month in okay so we're a new Cafe um we're all about our locals we're all about our customers we're all about mental health we're all about ensuring everybody's happy so um what's it like hard but rewarding black pool like nationally has got a reputation of being quite in Decline as a Seaside town in reality what's life like living here like early 2024 with a family with a business is it as bad as people can say and see um I think it's a mixed bag I can't say it is as bad and I can't say it isn't I'm a new business so I'm taking everything I've got and putting it into the business and hoping for the best so they've got a wonderful thing here at the Pit Stop Cafe I've got a pay forward board so if you come in and you want to you know treat somebody you've never met to a hot meal then you can buy a breakfast and a cup of tea for someone and I'm going to do that now can I pay forward a breakfast you certainly can you like to pay forward a small breakfast with a cup of tea for6 let's do that yeah one small breakfast with a standard cup of tea or coffee is6 I'm going to give you that you can then put it onto the board what a wonderful Community Cafe people running this business small family business but a lot of love for the community as well so this is your shop mate what do you do here DVDs Blu-rays DVDs Blu-rays this is C's world you know where everything is mate yeah you know where if I come in and ask for the Matrix could you find the Matrix that's in SciFi SFI so you know in this Aladdin's Cave of DVDs you could find Min a matrix right now yeah it's there and then the Sci-Fi is gone there around there cor mat is up there there we go you're a talented man it was always a popular place for us to come because we lived in South shm whenever we did shopping back in the olden days I'm talking back in the sort of ' 80s we'd always come here to water road yeah the place is going to back do and the Cil want to help people out and me else the shops are shutting down and you need to put money in to rejuvenate it and they're not doing it how come they're doing the Town Center yeah they're not doing the think they're spending money on the places where the tourists go but not not where the locals live that looked like it was a nice shop at one time what happened to Yates yeah it closed down couple of years ago yakes is very popular pub on Blackpool prominade yeah everywhere I've lived I came black pool 15 years ago and I lived in scabra 30 year I mean I loved abroad it's always at the seaside but all British Resorts they their ass they could do we upgrading but government's not get the money to do it easy as that what do you think of Blackpool these days dead dead completely dead I all right on the front you're looking around the back a shack takes just one block back and it's it's a different world yeah yeah it's a shame we're in a different area of Blackpool now it's another dilapidated area just a block back from the seafront this is the foxh all area but we're here for a reason and that is because in this Pub here the ardwick you can get the cheapest pint in the UK there is not a cheaper pint in this great nation so what can you get you can get a pint of cider a pint of John Smiths or a pint of Fosters for £180 so let's grab Steven out the van and let's enjoy the cheapest pint in the UK let's do it the cheapest p in the UK what's the pub like that fantastic great Pub yeah yeah fits the budget well that's it yeah so I want to cheap points what can I have you can have Fosters J Smith Murphy or stro jeez I'll have the Fosters what do you want mate I I'll The Fosters for a long long time so let's try that good a sport two fers two Fosters [Music] please there wonderful that is £360 please what's life liking the cheapest Pub in the UK brilliant always go always manic but absolutely brilliant manic good customers good Community good locals good holiday makers you enjoy brilliant awesome guys cheers mate what's your name Chris Chris thanks nice to you what do you think about the ardwick mate you know what that was um really really nice in there wasn't it nice warm friendly pop cheapish Pine you cannot argue with that you can't beat it 180 for a point I was expecting a bit of a interesting venue I'll say that it is a well-run pub with good value beer can't beat it been out of use since about 2018 they cleared out and move the police moved to Outer Town yeah so they've left this concrete brutalist monstros here it's uh it's an interesting uh Place jeez a little bit postapocalyptic I think really absolutely yeah is this what you think of folks when you think of Britain in 2024 this abandoned brutalist monstrosity if you look over there you can see where someone's been sleeping in the doorway over there the actual police station itself was designed by a guy called Roger Bo who was quite Infamous yeah for Building brutalist architecture police up and down the north of England you'll see other police stations like this in other towns yeah um yeah so it's that it's just that period isn't it you know we just had a bit of a Mad one didn't we I think um in my opinion yeah that architect's got a lot to answer for leaving this as for legacy in the center of Blackpool but that's just my opinion now it would be fair to say that no visit to Blackpool would be complete without a trip up the famous Blackpool Tower but unfortunately despite the fact Mr Google says that it's open it's closed which is no use to us but luckily I've got Steven with me and he can tell me a little bit about the history of the Tower yeah well Blackpool Tower most famous building in Blackpool of course 518 ft 9 in tall to the very top it was built it was inspired by the Apple Tower after the parish show there was a Consortium put together not here in Blackpool funny the idea for Blackpool Tower came from outside Blackpool to build a load of towers all over the UK and Blackpool Tower is the only one well one of two should I say that got built there was another one got that got built down the road in New Brighton that met a fate though they ended up having to not that one down but blackf Tower is still here 130 years later and yeah 130 years years old this year how about that wow yeah well I promise you mate when I come back in summer we'll go off yeah it'll definitely be open now definitely when I first started doing videos when I the first proper video I did in blackb I featured this building here it's like an old block of flats or something and um it hasn't changed since I started doing videos it's still so how long's that like three four years or something four years yeah yeah yeah so I don't know what's going to happen with it what a state so this block of houses has just been like this for 10 years yeah and the council are done nothing there's a block of three sort of hotels here three separate hotels in this block and yeah they've been like this for yeah about a decade yeah they've got squatters in there yeah vandalism of course do you think a lot of people that live in Blackpool do you think they've just come to accept it yeah I think so yeah yeah it just seems to be places like this here that there's a lot of different places like this around the town that just seem to stay like they are there's nothing ever seems to happen problem with Blackpool was Freddy Laker came along with his cheap Spanish uh his cheap Spanish holidays destroyed Blackpool in one night didn't he absolutely destroyed it yeah all the detroyer just went to pop and I think was the Thatcher government did an experiment with the B bnbs they let all the unemployed brought them into black pool it was an experiment which went badly wrong because all the the bnbs fell into disrepair they weren making the money so up this entire street I'm told is basically lined up to be knocked down for you know another purpose to do with education how does that make you feel knowing that your house that your home might is under threat of compulsory purchase I I just uh spent about £60,000 doing the house up and so I've had the bottom The Damp course put in had a new roof um new brand new kitchen new boiler new electrics so I spent about £60,000 the new kitchen went in the week before I got the letter from the council saying that they were going to out the houses how does that make you feel when you received that letter it's it was pretty awful to be fair I think but I can't see any more you know dilapidated hotels and pool shows me another mate we keep we keep walking into them don't we yeah look at the state of this the the Jukes Hotel it's not looking like it's fit for a Juke now mate not really I want to take a moment to address comments I get from time to time that say Wendell you're only showing the deprived side of Britain you're only showing the worst places you're not showing the really nice things and of course Britain has some wonderful places some places that are doing really well and some amazing in scenery I don't discount that but what you have to understand is that I'm interested in showing the places that are struggling because I believe that you can truly judge the success of a Nation by how those that have the least live this is the reality of Britain in 2024 the Gap is widening between halves and hav Knots and deprivation is growing it concerns me and I think it needs to be documented this this is the central part of black pool and I'll be honest with you folks there's a lot of deprivation a lot of decline in the places that surround the center but the actual shopping center what I would call The High Street it's doing all right you've got the Winter Gardens in the background there Steven yeah and the towered there and this precinct's all right yeah we're now on Victoria Street and we've got the the grand entrance of the Winter Gardens there beautiful yeah very like a focal point at the end of the street and over here we can see the Tower of course Right View the we're right next to the hounds Hill shopping center as well which is expanding all the time and they've also they're also building a new Cinema as well as part of the hill and um yeah so um it's all it all seems to be going on around here yeah yeah so I mean is this an example of you know the people we spoke to in the outer areas saying that all the money is being spent on the center and it's not finding its way to the outer areas it does seem to be like that yeah yeah but we have to call it what it is and the actual High Street Center of Blackpool seems to be all right yeah it's not too bad I just want to thank Steven mate thank you so much for showing me around blackp cing it's been great to see you what do you think of Blackpool in 2024 having grown up here all your life well I mentioned at the start of the video I mentioned that we grew up in Blackpool in the 70s and we didn't even see the we didn't notice it because we were just loving all the attractions we used to go to all the places and we felt we were so lucky to live in Black Bo but then get come to the ' 80s it's quite obvious that less people have coming and that sort of thing the place is starting to go down you get day Trippers you don't get people staying over uh but I think in the last sort of 10 years and we we've been walking around town now and we're seeing where there's quite a bit of money being spent now aren't we we're see around the town center yeah we've got new hotels being built holiday we've got the new Cy so in some areas things are looking up but I think for those areas that we've been to today some of those areas will probably continue to just sort of faster I think unless something serious is done there I can't see anything um happening you know to to improve those areas yeah anytime soon so yeah I mean like I say I'm really grateful that you've shown me around you are in my mind he's the number one YouTuber from Blackpool 100% check out his content I'll put a link in the description below it's called A Walk On The Wildside if you haven't come across it already and yeah thanks for showing me your Blackpool black pool in 2024 there's some good stuff going on but there's a lot of deprivation and a lot of decline in the places that just Fringe the center but I'm sure I'll come back to Blackpool again maybe in summer mate and you can show me what it's like in summer yeah thanks a milon St defitely cheers mate Che thank you so do you remember at the start of the video those two cars that were just abandoned in the Blackpool sea well Steven's local connections have informed us that at Sunset as the tides receded that the council have got this JCB and they're going to remove them they've already got one out the the shallower one but the deeper one we're going to try and excavate it so let's see how Blackpool Council pull off his feet what's the plan how are we going to get this car out of the sea these chops here come down in the in the vehicle to be able to to do the job yeah um JCB tandler um and that'll be able to get the forks underneath the vehicle lift it up remove it safely uh we're going to wait for the tide to web out so if there's any debris left around we'll ensure that the beach is left full clean and tidy so uh so yeah and we're doing it safely the Tide's on its way out so if we encountered any problems we've got time to be able to uh to make any adjustments if we need to okay

Channel: Wendall

Views: 232,260

Keywords: Blackpool, Poverty, Decline, Deprivation, Run Down, Broken, Britain, Broken Britain, Destitute, Destitution, Deprived, UK, England, Social, Problem, Housing, Crime, Antisocial, Asbo, Real, Life, Streets, Interview, Seaside, People, Society, Levelling Up, Employment, Unemployment, Boarded Up, Shops, Cafe, Community, Pub, Alcohol, Homeless, Homelessness, Holiday, Vacation, Staycation, Beach, Decay, Collapsed, Abandoned, North, Lancashire, North West

Id: xHKeXMAYtx8

Length: 31min 6sec (1866 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 06 2024