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Picture postcards - first created in the late 19th century, a collecting hobby for thousands since, and a valuable archive for social historians. This site is dedicated to postcards from Blackpool, particularly those of the Pleasure Beach, the Greatest Amusement Park in the World, which has existed as long as the Picture Postcard itself. Some of the views shown here are more than 100 years old, some less than 30, and all are intermingled with modern photographs and digital images.
This site is in part a tribute to the tenacity, foresight and determination of the Thompson family, owners and operators of the Pleasure Beach for the past 109 years, and guardians of a tradition still loved by the millions who visit every year.
Nor should we forget the producers of the ephemeral postcards - amongst them John Hinde and Company, Valentines, Dennis, Bamforths, and all the smaller companies and individuals who took and printed the photographs from which the postcards were made. We are eternally in their debt!
So take a trip through the Blackpool of long and not-so-long ago, drink in the social history through the fashions, cars, and some of the messages on the backs! We hope that you enjoy your 'virtual visit', and find something to enlighten, interest, inform and entertain you.
The postcard that started it all!
Many years ago, my youngest daughter saw this modern John Hinde postcard with a fantastic aerial view of Blackpool Pleasure Beach. This image prompted her to ask what the site had been like before the Pleasure Beach was built, and how the Pleasure Beach had grown into its current form. Now a few years, many postcard fairs (and a lot of e-baying!) later, we have brought together a small collection of cards which take a fond look at the past century or so through the eyes of the visitors to that great social mixing bowl which Blackpool is, with emphasis on the Pleasure Beach and hopefully 'excursions abroad' to the other 'Pleasure Palaces' of this great resort as the site develops........
