Changing Blackpool

Whilst in Hoyles Market in Olympia last weekend I found this postcard. It's a watercolour painting of the Gynn area, although it looks very different to today's Gynn Square. At the time there was a deep inlet into the land and the trams had to negotiate a sharp bend. I'd put the date of the postcard somewhere around 1910. The large Dreadnought trams had problems with the curve and it was decided to fill the inlet and build over it, giving the coast the shape that we know today and giving the trams a much straighter track.

The Blackpool Belle (No.2)

Must be the day for it - this is my second follow-up post of the day! I have previously mentioned the Blackpool Belle illuminated tram that I remember well trundling up and down the Promenade during the famous Illuminations, but which got sent away to America during the later 1970s.

I had a wander around the Hoyles antiques market in the Olympia building in the Winter Gardens complex this morning and came across this postcard of the tram, taken by the John Hinde postcard firm. It was probably taken in or close by the tram sheds as:

1. there looks to be a line at angles to the tram so it could have been near a set of points
2. it had to be taken in daylight from the detail and colour of the tram's woodwork and the sea-effect on the skirting

John Hinde were extremely good at paint jobs though and the background has been painted out and the foreground darkened and perhaps coloured to look like night with the tram lights reflected in a puddle.