Hey everyone. Currently living in Germany and applying for jobs in the UK. There might be an interview with a company in Blackpool and I started searching the life in Blackpool. I noticed that everyone talks about it in a bad way but is it really that bad to live in Blackpool? Would someone answer it honestly?
Btw, I know that everything depends on the person and the conditions as everyone has got different way of living but generally when you search for a city in the UK nobody uses the word deprivation often. That's why I wanted to ask you guys.
PS: Thank you all guys. I appreciate your answers. I think I won’t give it a chance.
31 comments
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It’s one of the most deprived places in the UK, I wouldn’t choose to live there
For a night out, it is grotesquely wonderful.
I’m not sure I’d want to live there, but I imagine it could be okay ish.
Live about half an hour from there and everyone within Lancashire knows what it’s like. Drug filled, violence, crime and poverty. A few years ago a study was done and 8 of the 10 most deprived areas in England are/were in Blackpool. There’s plenty of YouTube videos showing just what life is like there, which is quite sad.
On the other side if you’re visiting, they have a good theme park, great mucky nightlife and a decent away day for a game of football, if that’s your thing.
It has *a lot* of issues, see [here](https://www.ft.com/blackpool). One of the most deprived places in the UK.
I went in the day once and visiting actually triggered a bout of depression. It really is that bad. You can buy nipple tassels out of gumball machines
No no no, don’t do that. It’s bloody grim. By all means go and visit, and by 3pm you’ll want out.
If Dresdon is a 10/10 then Blackpool is a 2/10.
It’s easily one of the worst places in the United Kingdom that I have seen
Company in Blackpool? Weird!
Blackpool, hmm, I went there in 2007. It was poor and run down, even the pier. You could see it might have been a great place in the 80s but it got stuck in the past. I went back in 2018. I got off the train and poverty hit me in the face like a brick. Closed and empty shop fronts, houses in desperate need of renovation. Wherever you looked, even the seafront looked like that 55 year old prostitute in the morning with the smeared mascara. In the evening, in the dark she looks alright, but in the morning it’s a sobering sight.
The people looked poor , depressed and kind of hopeless, And sorry to say this, but really chavy too, and the marijuana smell covered the town as a dome.
I think it is a sad reminder of the past when the UK generally was a nicer place to live.
I always say that the worst cities or towns in the UK I have been to is Gravesend in Kent, and second place goes to Blackpool.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUKWPoyGTLA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUKWPoyGTLA) about Blackpool, see it for yourself. You can find a few more videos.
Blackpool is among the biggest shitholes in the UK. Do not move there under any circumstances.
If you’re considering over that way then you could do a lot worse than Lytham or St Anne’s which are just down the road. Full of old people but it’s a million times nicer than Blackpool and is obviously just down the road if that’s where your job is.
Depends where you live in Blackpool, if you can only afford housing near the seafront then it will be grim, but if you live in areas where workers/families prefer them you’ll be fine.
Also there are nice nearby towns / villages like Lytham St Anne’s & Poulton Le Fylde.
As well as Blackpool, you’ll have Preston nearby as a large employment area, probably a good to find a base with access to both locations, salaries will likely be higher in Preston than Blackpool
A lot of people in the UK have been to Blackpool. They have all gone down the same few streets, seen the tourist shops & bars. They now think all of Blackpool is like that.
Blackpool is a surprisingly large town that stretches along the coast. There’s some rough parts and some lovely parts.
It is primarily a tourist town which has it’s upsides & downsides. It means that you can enjoy ‘being on holiday’ all year. Midweek days I can walk along a deserted seafront, I can go out to a huge selection of pubs & bars everyday, there’s regular festivals and events on, etc. downside is that a lot of work in the town itself is seasonal, so there’s a lot of unemployment especially out of season and during the winter months a lot of businesses close up for months.
I love living here. I love how well kept the town is, the sea air, the people, the arts scene, etc. but it’s not for everyone
It’s a seasonal town so it’s dead most of the year and busy in summer, but it’s very poor not somewhere you want to live.
No it isn’t bad to live there. I think those commenting don’t know the whole area well. Yes there is deprivation and the nightlife is is lively. But there are some fabulous places to live within a few minutes of the centre. The promenade has been well developed and we go there often for a long walk near the sea. Morecambe Bay is amazing. I wouldn’t want to live close to the centre not because of ‘the poors’ but because a lot of these areas are a pain for parking.
Go just a little bit north, south or east and you’ll be in enviable places to live. I’m assuming you are a younger person so I’d suggest that if want look at areas to live you go nearer to Preston, as university city. From there you are on a mainline train route to Manchester, Lancaster and Cumbria and some trains are just 2 hours from London. You’d also have easy access to the M6. You’re still only 20 minutes from Blackpool from Preston. If you’d prefer something rural you have loads of options. Within 15 minutes drive of the centre you can be in a lovely village.
It you prefer to be shielded from real life and deprivation, it is very to easy to do. I’d say for it’s a great value for money place to live in the UK with a whole pile of benefits in terms of access to the best the country has to offer.
I don’t recommend it. It’s a very deprived town and there are nicer and more vibrant places to live in the UK.
Blackpool is great if you like scabies, toothless prostitutes, mobility scooters, children being abandoned by parents in Spoons, violence, no fresh air because everyone smokes outside, the smell of burnt fat, suicide.
You have the sea on your doorstep, Stanley Park which has won awards for being one of Englands best parks, smaller towns like Poulton and Lytham which have a completely different reputation.
Plenty of cheap pubs, Pleasure Beach, Sandcastle, loads of music/comedy at Winter Gardens etc.
You’re an hour from Manchester/Liverpool for cities and the Lake District the other direction for nature. In terms of location you have everything within an hour or so.
Your money goes so much further for housing etc compared to most of the country.
Honestly, you could do worse.
Areas to try avoid living in but what large town/city doesn’t have rough parts? Look around a little further outside the centre and I think you’ll get a different impression compared to most of the comments here.
There’s plenty of shitholes in England, Blackpool gets more stick than most because it’s one of the ones that people actually visit in big numbers every year.
You will become a drug addict
If I could think of a list of towns in the Uk where I wouldn’t want to live, Blackpool would be in my top 2 just behind Weston super mare.
I live in Blackpool, but in the North. There are plenty of nice areas. Have a look at Poulton for example. Like all towns in England, it has it’s good and bad parts, all towns have large council estates etc, non of them as bad as people make out. Often the people who litter, vandalise and cause nuisance in the town centre are the tourists.
I am very grateful to have grown up in Blackpool. It has decent transport links thanks to the tram, and it meant that as a young teenager I could go out with friends, catch the tram and go to a theme park, or waterpark, or to see a show, or up the tower. Not many towns offer so much to young people.
I live not too far away from Blackpool, trust me, the place is a s***hole.
It’s one of the worst places for drugs in the UK.
It’s amongst the lowest in terms of life expectancy.
Homelessness is pretty rife, and disheartening to see.
Crime isn’t exactly great.
The past appeal is pretty much gone, with a lot of hotels dilapidated and plenty of old stores simply vacant.
Now I wouldn’t say the area is totally lost, if you drive then I’d say there’s no harm in looking at Lytham/St Anne’s a couple of miles away. From the times I’ve ventured down there for the day it’s close enough to Blackpool, and has a decent number of amenities, without being evidently sucked in to the abyss. You still get the charm of the coast, without constantly dealing with people asking if you could spare some change.
Oh my god mate don’t move to Blackpool. It’s a really, really deprived area. Massive problems with poverty and crime.
I live in the nearby Morecambe and people around here are racist AF (I’m from the south) so for a foreigner I would doubly not recommend it
Blackpool is grim
Can anyone tell me if it as bad as Beeston in Leeds which feels poor or Harehills. Im not scared of getting mugged there but I’m scared of being happy slapped for no reason like at school
I would stay away personally the socio economics of Blackpool show it is a very deprived area where opportunities for jobs and higher education are a few. There is also a problem at the moment with an opioid addiction.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-AUzIJmtGSg&t=27s&pp=ygUcU29jaW8gZWNvbm9taWNzIG9mIGJsYWNrcG9vbA%3D%3D
This may help you and give you information on Blackpool this video was released 11 months ago go in and interview with a member of their local council. It is unfortunately a rapidly declining part of the U.K. with the young people who are finishing school struggling to find a job. A lot needs to be done to support Blackpool right now as even their tourist destinations aren’t enough.
Some areas outside of Blackpool are ok, but it’s also not a very diverse area (from what I have seen and heard) definitely worth doing your research.
Watch this and judge for yourself
https://youtu.be/pJwvlLUuqcA?si=HufTvRKzldDlkGJW
It depends on what job you are going for. Blackpool is a tourist-centric town and has seasonal work, which I wouldn’t recommend.
Contrary to popular belief, there are nice areas and nice houses in Blackpool, but be warned, it has a very high amount of poverty / alcoholism / hard drug abuse in certain areas.
Fucking grim.
After the decline of its tourist industry in the 70’s, Blackpool became an unemployment blackspot. It is still a deprived town I would avoid. I prefer to keep my memories of it from 50-60 years ago when it was a lively seaside resort for families.