New Brighton... The Last Resort

[Ross08]

I took a few photos in New Brighton yesterday that you may like to see.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i36/taxipix/MarineParkBowling-June2007.jpg
Marine Park Bowling Club. I like the green in that one.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i36/taxipix/MarineParkPlants.jpg
Summer's here and don't the plants look great.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i36/taxipix/SHELTER1.jpg
I've got quite a collection of photographs of the three Victorian shelters on the promenade. It's great that they are still there and I love them, but it does upset me to see the state that they are in...

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i36/taxipix/SHELTERNB.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i36/taxipix/MINIGOLFOVERGROWN2.jpg
New Brighton really is the Last Resort. It's almost a forgotten town. This is the abandoned Mini Golf course next to the Palace and the Floral Pavilion.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i36/taxipix/MINIGOLFOVERGROWN1.jpg

My Great Nan (born in 1903) grew up in Belmont Road, just behind the Palace. Her mother ran one of the many guest houses in the town. I'll always remember the stories she used to tell me about the way New Brighton used to be.

She told me about when she would sit in the front garden and watch the lift of the tower going up and down and about the crowds coming on the ferry from Liverpool.

It's almost unbelievable now that the town used to be a thriving resort. It's absolutely dead, but there is something I love about New Brighton and I think it is a great place to take photographs.

[Ged]

I've played crazy golf at that abandoned course, many moons ago.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Ross

Many thanks for sharing your photographs of New Brighton with us, as well as your thoughts and family stories. Wonderful stuff.

Chris

[drone_pilot]

I remember using the Crazy Golf course, in the late 50's early 60's. A realy
sad site to see, I also remember the old Fair now a housing estate.

[iain]

I remember walking up and down there with my auntie when I was young. Not been there for years though. I didn't realise what a state it was all in now.

[angus]

I aint been to New Brighton since the 1960's. Is the funfair still there ?

[Gerard]

""""

[Ernie]

I go back to forties and early fifties, I loved Newbrighton, it was like a whole new world to me, I would look at the ships sailing in and outof the river, it was the start of my 42 year sea career, i am sorry to see as it is now.

[scouse mouse]

I keep meaning to go over some time when I get back but I never go in the summer (I couldn't miss the footy).

I have some fond memories though as a kid in the late 50's and early 60's,
jostling for position to try and be the first off the packed ferry boats, that rickety old cable lift that you felt was never going to make it to the top of the tower building, those cheesy "what the butler saw" viewers that looked like they belonged in the 1860's (and probably did), the Roller Coaster (figure 8 ?) what was it called ? and going over to Fort Perch Rock and then realising that the tide had started to come in over the causeway.:rolleyes:

[chippie]

My uncle used to work on the fair rides in the summer. I went over one day and got a free ride on the walzer at the age of seven, I was terrified.:shock:

Used to do the crazy golf too when I was a bit older.:)

Went over many a time with my granma, who was my guardian and had fish chips and peas in a cafe there washed down with a smashing big brown pot of tea. Lovely grub:)

[Store 3]

hi, are there any photo,s of the fair on the hill before the big fire distroyed the ballroom...............i remember running up the gangway of the ferryboat and straight onto the electric dodgem,s great days sadly gone......

[PhilipG]

hi, are there any photo,s of the fair on the hill before the big fire distroyed the ballroom...............i remember running up the gangway of the ferryboat and straight onto the electric dodgem,s great days sadly gone......

Go to "Old Liverpool" (see link below) and click on any of the photos that exacta2a has submitted.
That'll take you to all his photos.
He's posted one today (admittedly not his own, but it'll take you to his flickr page).

[steveb]

What a shame, when you think back to the 50s early 60s when
people used to come from places like Bolton for a weeks holiday.
I remember going many times for a day out, donkey rides, candy floss
the dodgem cars. I have an old pic somewere, if I can find it I will
post it.

[Devo]

A seaside resort so close to a city with an expanding tourist trade would be great especially if it had a pier where the worlds most famous ferry's could drop off their passengers, maybe even some Hotels and even a Fair!
Let's hope that the past repeats itself.
I go to New Brighton about once a month, the kids love the arcade and crabbing on the beach, and it's a great place to watch the ships! Just such a pity it's only busy enough to bring in some cash on Bank Holidays.

[lindylou]

It would be fantastic to have those attractions back.

Wish we still had the pier. As you say, it would be great for dropping off tourists there, and they could get a good view form the other side of the L'pool waterfront.

I suppose the cost to rebuild a pier would be huge.

[phredd]

This is a relic of the Ghost Train.
Found and bought at a Bootfare at Leasowe Common about three years ago.
Travels with us when we go camping.

Phredd

[chippie]

Devo did you say the kids love the arcades and crapping on the beach?:shock:

[Ross08]

Work Is Underway On The New Floral Pavilion

The theatre is being almost completely rebuilt.
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i36/taxipix/FLORALSEP071.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i36/taxipix/FLORALSEP072.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i36/taxipix/FLORALSEP07.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i36/taxipix/FLORALSEP073.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i36/taxipix/FLORALSEP074.jpg

[Store 3]

What a tourist attraction the Royal Iris II would be in the Albert Dock ,
i can,t see her cruising again, it would cost to much .....But i can fore
see her as a cafe and floating museum of the mersey ferries .
ps. anybody knows what happened to her sister the Royal Daffodil II.

[HollyBlack]

What a tourist attraction the Royal Iris II would be in the Albert Dock , i can,t see her cruising again, it would cost to much .....But i can fore see her as a cafe and floating museum of the mersey ferries .I think you mean Royal Iris III which cost roughly a quarter of a million pounds in 1951. Today a fully functional full-size replica (1300 tons), diesel-electric twin-screw, look-alike, would cost about 14 million pounds, yellow and emerald green paint included. Anyone got the spare change?

Lots of things are possible if only there was a will. For me, I would build a new New Brighton ferry pier for the tourist trade and convert the Seacombe ferry stage into a terminal for small to medium cruise ships (such as those going to the Artic).

Then let's have trams between Seacombe and Woodside, bring back the Number 14 bus, put Tuk-Tuks on the prom, and more, oh dream on!
Oh, yes, and a great eight storey combined car park, hotel, swimming pool, indoor amusements (miniature railway?) and theatre topped by a tower (reduced sized replica of the original) covering what is left of the tower grounds.

Does anyone know what became of the Wallasey Corporation Crest that the "Fish and Chip boat" wore so proudly?

[PhilipG]

Work Is Underway On The New Floral Pavilion

The theatre is being almost completely rebuilt.


Does that mean that some of the old building is going to be kept?

[Steven]

Didn't Al Capone's car used to be at the entrance to the fairground ?

[Steven]

I rememember me Conny Onny butty being full of sand not long after we got off the ferry to New Brighton. One bottle of sarsaparilla between 6 of us and not enough 'slummy' to get into the baths.

I also remember a very sad racial occasion there but will only PM or e-mail it.

[Ross08]

FLORAL PAVILION

### CONSTRUCTION UNDERWAY ###

[sweetcheeks]

We spent lots of time at New Brighton swimming baths during our summer holidays. You would take a big packed lunch egg sarnies where my favourite, and then spend all day there. Saw lots of Miss New Brighton parades there with the footballers as judges we where in awe of them. Nearly had my first date there with the boy of my dreams but as luck would have it there was a bus strike on that day so we never got there and love never blossomed dammed bus drivers. :tear:

[John(Zappa)]

What fun was had in the outdoor swimming baths.Freezing salty water.
I wonder how many "bunked in" over the years.:ninja:

[marky]

The teletext earlier today mentioned the Floral Pavilion...also gets a mention here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/1.0/-/1/hi/england/merseyside/7009994.stm

Floral Pavilion website (includes a webcam of the site to be developed)
http://www.floralpavilion.co.uk/

[PhilipG]

Thanks Ross and Marky.
The artist's impressions look like a completely new building.
The Floral Pavilion started out as an open-air venue, and has been altered quite a few times over its 90-odd years existence, and there's nothing worth saving, except that long curved red-brick wall at the back.
The Winter Gardens should have been New Brighton's post-war theatre, but that's been demolshed (like most of NB's theatres and cinemas).