Blackpool has many claims to fame: two spectacular ballrooms, three raucous piers and a tower so beloved that people wept when it was wrongly reported to be on fire last year. But until this week, in more than 170 years as one of the UK’s most popular seaside resorts, it has not had a proper museum.
This Friday, Showtown opens its doors: Blackpool’s museum of fun. Built for £13m on the site of the old Palace nightclub, it celebrates the outrageous past and present of the entertainment industry in the “Lancashire riviera”.
