Morecambe Rail Poster

I do like old railway posters on postcards.  This is of one designed by Claude Buckle in the 1950s.  It says the "sunny Lancashire coast" and it certainly is today.

The scene is of this seaside towns front with the Super Swimming Station (left), Winter Gardens (right) and Central Pier in the background.  I like the muted colours, the detail of people walking round the gardens and  the little sailing ships although the hills are a bit of artistic licence as they are in reality further round the bay, but that is one of the joys of painting, you can alter a view to create a harmonious scene.  

The Super Swimming Station, its actual name, was built to rival Blackpool down the coast. Built in 1936 on the site of a former ship breaking business that was an attraction in its own right, people payed to board doomed ocean liners and old warships. The open air pool size was 396 ft x 110 ft and it could accommodate 1,200 bathers and 3,000 spectators. The inter war years were a boom time for lidos and many were built but few survive and this is one that did not. It had a problem with a leak in the sea wall that was never satisfactorily fixed and seawater came into the pool at high tide and water from the pool escaped at low tide. It was finally demolished in the 1970s.

The Winter Gardens was a 2000 seat theatre but  is now in the hands of a charitable trust who are raising money to refurbish it, but at the present time is only open for things like ghost hunts, supposedly a very haunted venue.  Being opened in 1897 it  has had over a hundred years to build up a collection of spooky spirits.

Beth at The Best Hearts Are Crunchy is our hostess for Postal Friendship Friday.