Phoenix Guest House

12 Cocker Street, Blackpool, FY1 1SF   Tel: 01253 299130

Friendly Accommodation close to Beach, Train & Tower

In 1780, there were still only about 50 houses and a few dusty roads in the town.  But the hotel trade was beginning - and you could stay in Blackpool’s best hotels for 10d a day.  Among these was Bailey’s Hotel, built in 1785.  Owner Lawrence Bailey charged visitors 3s 4d a night, with 1s for dinner or supper and 8d for breakfast or tea.  The hotel is still as popular today - but better known as the Metropole.

Paddling was already becoming popular among those brave enough to scramble down the rough stone steps to the beach.  The most northerly building in this 1837 print shows the Lane Ends Hotel, which stood at the bottom of Church Street.

North Pier was opened in 1862.

Thatched Cliffe Cottage and its stable stood to the north of the Metropole Hotel site, at the junction of Cocker Street and the Promenade ‘yards from Phoenix Guest House’.  It was knocked down in 1865.

These elegant hotels in 1867 - dubbed Regents Terrace and Brighton Parade - once stood north of Springfield Road (left of promenade at the end of Cocker Street).

The pleasure gardens and entertainment centre, opened in 1871, covered more than 40 acres of the estate, and were once described as bigger, brighter and better than the world-famous Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.  The amusement park was located behind what is now Central Car park, at the side of Coral Island.

The Winter Gardens was opened in 1878.  With its open-air gardens and skating rink, it enjoyed mixed fortunes until the Opera House was added in 1889.  This is an artist’s impression of the Coronation Street extension, completed in 1931.

Bathing machines were available for hire from the 1880s.  A bell was rung several times a day on the beach to warn the male bathers that ladies were coming in.  The men had to leave the water… and were liable to be fined if they peeped at the bathing beauties!

The project was fathered by Sir John Bickerstaffe, Mayor of Blackpool, whose idea for the Tower came after Gustave Eiffel built his for the Paris exhibition of 1889.  The Tower site was originally occupied by Dr Cocker’s aquarium, which can still be seen as the first struts of steel take shape in 1892.

The Grand Theatre, opened in 1894, came close in 1972 to meeting the same fate as many of the other shows in Blackpool, including Feldman’s (Queen’s); Palace Theatre (Woolworth’s); Hippodrome (Syndicate) and Theatre Royal (Yates’).

Victoria, now known as South Pier, was built in 1893.  People would spend Sunday morning at the fashion parade on North Pier, followed by an afternoon stroll on the Victoria.

The most famous shipwreck in Blackpool was that of Nelson’s flagship the Foudroyant.  She was moored off Blackpool when a freak storm whipped up in 1897, causing her to break her moorings and crash on to the beach at North Shore.  Many local people still have souvenirs today which were pulled from the wreckage.

The first North Station was built in Dickson Road in the 1900s to cater for the thousands of travelers who poured into Blackpool for the tradesmen's holidays.  It remained there, little altered, for 70 years, but demolished in the 70s to make way for a supermarket, now Wilkinson's store.

The world’s first permanent electric street tramway opened in Blackpool 1885.  The line ran from Cocker Street to South Shore.  Overhead trolley trams were introduced in 1899.

The earliest attractions to the Pleasure Beach was the Captive Flying Machine which opened in 1904 - and still popular today, along with the Grand National !

The so-called toastrack trams were Blackpool’s answer to the charabanc when they were introduced in 1911.  The trams started the first circular tour of the town.

From the North Pier along the North Shore, the council spent thousands of pounds building Princess Parade opened in 1912.  This was also the place of the first illuminations display, to mark the first Royal Visit to Blackpool, by Princess Louise.

What was to become the Pleasure Beach’s first Casino building was built as a restaurant and theatre on the sands in 1913.  This glorious building was demolished in 1937 with explosives.

Blackpool and Fylde’s great Tank Week of 1918 raised an amazing £1.12 million.  This was one of the tanks from WW1 pictured in the unmistakable setting of Talbot Square, with Yates’ in the background.

Building began on the Big Wheel in