Blackpool Pleasure Beach 1980

Going back to the year 1980 for a few visits to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Logic and simple mathematics tell me that this is 44 years ago, but sheesh, how can it possibly be so long ago?

At this time Ocean Boulevard with its row of shops, restaurants and view-blocking, shoot-yourself-in-the-foot, barrier to self-advertisement had yet to be built and you could lean against the wall with a great view of the lake, Log Flume and Big Dipper. If you were lucky the Pleasure Beach Express would appear, travelling along the far side of the lake or a Monorail train would pass overhead.

It was a vantage point for photographers. All the above-mentioned rides and their riders could be snapped for posterity. Admittedly photography at the time was not a particularly cheap hobby. No-one in their right minds would have been regularly photographing every plate of food they were about to consume - though the interest in such photographs I suspect has remained constant...

If the human race hasn't destroyed itself by the time another 50, 75 or 100 has passed, imagine the amount of work in trying to find a photo of your ancestor amongst all the photos of plates of fish and chips, full breakfasts and over-priced fiddled with and unnecessarily complicated mixture of tofu, hummus, pine nuts and ground yam yam tree bark. Whatever... As I used to remark when travelling out of Lancashire and being faced with unrecogniseable mush on a plate: "Have you anything with a crust on it?"

Yesterday in the article Blackpool Pleasure Beach 1979, I mentioned the long climb up to the launch platform of the Revolution looping roller coaster. It can be seen here in all its multiple flights of stairs glory. It's a bit like a squared off double helix of DNA. One spiral for climbing up and the other for going down. Look at the crowds! This was only April - the Easter opening of the park.

Speaking of the Revolution... Interesting to ignore it for the moment and look around the rest of the photograph. The Monorail track on the right leads from the ride's station above which the mock cliffs and mountains of the Goldmine Ride can be seen. The lighter buildings just below on the right are those of the station and outbuildings of the Pleasure Beach Express. Large models of various animals stand watch over kiddies' trampolines on the extreme right.

Under the curve of the Monorail track under the Pleasure Beach Express buildings is a lifebelt on a stand. That little bright white dip is a pond with radio-controlled boats, the coin-operated control points can barely be seen - look for a row of tiny white dots. Looking through the Revolution, the space under the arch of the ride is no longer the home of the Cinema USA dome which will shortly appear (I think it was the same one, but stand to be corrected if someone knows better) on the Central Pier in the position later taken by the pier's Big Wheel.

We can see a kiddies' roundabout, the track for the Turnpike (or Grand Prix I'm unsure when it changed names - if you know leave a comment!), and through the loop, the glass dome containing the Astro Swirl (a great ride but not recommended after drinking a full glass of orange juice... I say this from near personal experience. I managed to keep my dignity and also saved myself from the danger of being attacked by any Oompa Loompas who may have been in the flight path!) Maxim's Flying Machine is also there on the top right.

Struggling to remember what this was called - Paratrooper? Ski Lift. It was a short-lived ride anyway and yet another of the portable fairground rides that occupied the park south of Watson Road at that time.

Which brings us to my favourite of the portables - Cyclone, one of which's cars is seen through the track just setting off from the station at the beginning of its ride.

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