Anyone know Blackpool well?

[AnyaKimlin]

My urban fantasy is set there and I am managing fine with my knowledge of childhood day trips for the part set in the 1980s.

The bit set in the 1940s is proving problematic and I can't afford the book I want until next month. I am looking for a place a sleazy backstreet type basement club could have been - it doesn't have to be entirely accurate. I want it fairly near to the Central Pier probably within walking distance.

I'm trawling Google street maps but anyone with local knowledge would be useful. I had hoped buildings in Blackpool would be pretty similar to the ones in Southport and have basements but having researched another issue earlier I have discovered the houses are very different in build and layout.

 

[PTeppic]

Plenty of sleazy streets round central pier (and the Foxhall area is the oldest bit of Blackpool, technically). Not sure about basement clubs though.

[living a few miles outside and not one of the club scene]

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Plenty of sleazy streets round central pier (and the Foxhall area is the oldest bit of Blackpool, technically). Not sure about basement clubs though.

[living a few miles outside and not one of the club scene]

It just needs to be a basement in a house but if I just keep it general should I get away with it? Any chance you know if they have basements - I have tried Rightmove and not finding the info I want. I'll wander round on streetview. I need a reason a white man would meet a black woman in Blackpool in the 1940s and he would take her back to his hotel - I figured if she was hurt and he had rescued her from a situation it would give a good reason.

 

[PTeppic]

Sorry, I wasn't around here in the 40s. And, frankly, I'm not sure there would have been any black women in Blackpool in the 40s. Certainly very, very few.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I know that is why I want a sleazy basement club - about the only place she may have gained employment in the area, maybe as a singer. Apparently there was an unofficial colour bar in the centre of a lot of Northern Towns - I have been told it was Freemason organised. Which sickens me for a tad means I had family members involved in it.

But her being black would also explain why after sneaking her in she disappeared the next morning and never contacted him again.

 

[Dave]

Does this help?
http://www.francisfrith.com/blackpool,lancashire/

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Does this help?
http://www.francisfrith.com/blackpool,lancashire/

It will be very useful thanks I'm going to go with just a general close/alleyway and a nondescript door for now. Figured if Gus rescues Iris from a group of men - I can introduce his wizardry (because otherwise he is an intellectual type in glasses) and I don't have to be too specific about how/why she is there.

But those pictures are wonderful aren't they ?