Street Art Part Two - Blackpool, Lancashire

Last week I visited Blackpool.  This visit was two days after the day spent in Manchester that I wrote about in the previous blog post which included lots of pictures of street art.

I was heading into Blackpool on the bus and was happy to spot lots more street art so I got off the bus and photographed it.  All the photos below come from one location, around a car park by Church Street.  I've found out now that it's all there as part of an urban art festival and that there is more art in other locations in Blackpool.  If I'd known that then I might have sought out the lot.  But what there was around that car park was enjoyed.  And the festival has become an annual event - so by the end of this year there could be lots more art for me to enjoy.

Getting off the bus there was also a happy thing because in that area I also found a second hand book shop.  And then I discovered The Regent Picture House, a 1920s cinema.  It's not a cinema now.  Now it's a rather good antiques and collectibles shop with lots of very varied stalls on three floors and a tea room with tasty cake and friendly service.  I'm in clear out mode of all the clutter I already own so didn't buy anything except in the tea room but I enjoyed walking round the place - twice, as I went back a couple of days later with the same wonderful friend mentioned in the previous post.  The Regent will be a cinema again as well as a shop.  The tiered seating area on the first floor is still there.  It's a mess at the moment.  Anyone there would agree.  But they have started to restore it and the plan is to reopen as a cinema in the evenings and show whatever films people want to see - which probably won't be the same ones as showing in whatever cinemas Blackpool currently has.  It's going to be mint.

Here's the art.  Photos taken again on my phone - the second cheapest smart phone I could buy nearly eighteen months ago.  I hadn't expected to be using it much and the last five months I've nearly worked it to death.  It needs replacing - especially since Microsoft updated the operating system to something that uses nearly all the phone's memory.  Thank God I chose the second cheapest - because it had a slot for a memory card.  But the phone will soon die at the hands of Microsoft.