17 random things Blackpool locals will remember about the town in the 80s and 90s from McDonald's opening to King Kong
Claire Lark
·3-min read
Zip wires, iconic nightclubs and when Maccies first opened... (Photo: National World)
We’ve trawled the archives to find a few things that people who grew up in Blackpool will remember from the 1980s and 90s. We would love to hear your best memories of Blackpool in the comments section…
In case you missed them: 25 nostalgic pictures to take you back to Blackpool in 1972 from a Concorde flight to Blackpool Victoria Hospital stabbings
37 brilliant pictures of kids at primary schools in Poulton, Thornton Cleveleys and Fleetwood back to the 00s
Oz nightclub - bouncing dancefloors on Central Pier in the 90s (Photo: National World)
Our town centre shopping complex Houndshill first opened in the early 1980s. It's undergone several facelifts and extensions since then and remains the main shopping area (Photo: National World)
The original Funny Girls back in 1999 (Photo: National World)
This was when Keith Chegwin brought Saturday Superstore to Blackpool in the 1980s (Photo: National World)
A girl has a shot on the rope slide at Central Pier - do you remember it? (Photo: Toby Williams)
Remember Beatties? A staple of Saturday afternoon shopping in the 1980s (Photo: National World)
This strip of commercial buildings has seen so many business come and go. This was 1990s with Kelly's Bar and the Strand Restaurant. Further along was where Zone rave events were held as well as Jenks Bar and Illusions (Photo: National World)
Did you ever catch a Handy Bus? (Photo: National World)
A massive blaze in December 1991 ripped through Blackpool’s Pleasure Beach, destroying the famous Fun House. A firefighter carries all that remianed of the laughing clown (Photo: library)
Were you a fan? This was when Bad Boys Inc made hand prints at the opening day of the Pepsi Max Big One on June 29 1994 (Photo: submit)
The Sandcastle opened in June 1986. The photo shows children from Blackpool schools turn one of the poolside water cannons (Photo: staff)
The official opening of the Pepsi max Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1994 (Photo: National World)
Magician Paul Daniels gets into the swing of things after opening Professor Peabody's Play Place in the Winter Gardens in 1983 (Photo: library)
King Kong at The Tower in 1984. He became an icon of the times. It was all about a reimagined telling of the classic movie which was being specially created after a £680,000 Arts Council England grant to the Grand Theatre in Blackpool (Photo: Archive)
This photo was taken when Blackpool town centre McDonald's opened in April 1982. Six year old Lee Scott, of Charnley Road tucks into a Big Mac with Angela Gill (left) and Alison Ankers. Look at the queue behind them of people waiting for their first taste of McDonald's
in 1995 Blackpool called out the guards to make sure everyone was having a good time at Easter. After declaring itself an independent principality of fun at the end of the previous season, 'chuckle check points' were set up around the town. Drivers in the main car park complex were greeted by smile sergeants Jenny Clays and Andrea Lew and chuckle corporal Peter Oliver, who reminded them of the town's charter of fun. Who knew?... (Photo: National World)
Two years ago, after yet another couple of nights of rioting in the banlieues, twenty retired French generals wrote an open letter to Emmanuel Macron, then about to run for a second term, warning that the divisions between communities and increasing “violence and nihilism” in France would eventually cause a social breakdown, with a risk of “chaos” leading to a “civil war” that would then “require” a military “intervention… in a dangerous mission to protect our civilisational values and safeguard
A father’s last moments protecting his son before he was murdered in the street by a gang armed with machetes and zombie knives has been caught on CCTV. Kelvin Ward, 50, was stabbed after leaving a KFC with his son, who the gang had been trying to kill, on 18 April. The armed gang launched themselves at Mr Ward as they chased him across the street, before he was fatally stabbed.
For much of this year and before 7 October, naval gazers had about four areas to look at. First, the ongoing fight in the Black Sea with the Russian blockade weaponizing hunger despite regular Ukrainian successes there. The Russians were also keeping navies busy in the high north and the North Atlantic.
How’s Brexit working out? There have been some marginal positives, but in terms of the economy, it’s been mainly downside, and on the issues that really matter to voters – particularly immigration and a better functioning health service with more money behind it – Brexit has so far manifestly failed to deliver.
As Eurocrats-in-chief go, Ursula von der Leyen has generally been relatively inoffensive to British sensibilities. Most of us were dimly aware that she was one of those people who excel at “failing upwards”, with her emergence as President of the European Commission following a chequered spell as Germany’s defence minister.
The Var at the centre of the PSG-Newcastle penalty controversy has been removed from Champions League duty after authorities concluded both he and the referee were at fault.
Even as some Tories are getting real about the issue, Labour is doubling down. It could try just being honest with the public, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are an “impatient” couple who “ran hot” while negotiating their exit from the Royal family, biographer Omid Scobie has said as he attempts to distance himself from the label of “Meg’s pal”.
CCTV footage shows a patient assaulting a paramedic - leaving him such pain he thought he had broken his arm. In the footage - released by the London Ambulance Service (LAS) - a man can be seen pushing the worker out of the door of an ambulance. The 30-year-old victim lands on top of his arm and is seen writhing in pain.
The United Kingdom should rejoin the European Union to “fix” Brexit, Ursula von der Leyen has said, after Labour pledged to forge closer ties with the bloc if elected.
Yahoo News 
