Farewell to the Lyric Hotel

As time trundles on, we forget places that once seemed important and then quite often find out decades later that they are gone. I recently discovered that the Lyric Hotel in Blackpool was demolished in 2023. Some Doctor Who fans of a certain generation will remember the Lyric as the hub of the annual Blackpool gatherings that took place each May. The Lyric was every much the centre of these events as half the attendees stayed there, the others in a hotel two doors way, and were sure of a warm welcome from the family that owned the hotel. As far as I can tell the Lyric did not relocate and so is gone forever which I suppose also reflects changing times.

 

The Blackpool Weekends #2

To provide a true flavour of what the Blackpool gathering was like, there's a short video on YouTube made by Kevin Davies of the 1981 gathering and if you look very, very carefully you’ll see me crossing the road around 3 and a half minutes in with someone wearing a big scarf though that is not really the most exciting moment- unless there was a dinosaur heading for us! You can also see a Sea Devil pootling about. Link to Blackpool 1981 video

It is with a little trepidation also that I present some (slightly edited) reviews I wrote at the time for the fanzine `Shada`. You may not know the names mentioned but these give a further illustration of what the weekends were like, there’s also some photos from various events. If you were there see if you can spot yourself. 

1983

The Blackpool Weekends #1

Doctor Who fan events in the `old time` were not always just about large scale conventions - in the pre-internet, pre-video days people had to get out a bit if they wanted to get to know other fans from different areas and if they needed to see those episodes they had hazy memories of. So there were lots of extra things in between conventions and one of them was the annual gathering at Blackpool, the North's premier seaside town and the location for the Doctor Who Exhibition. Each year, in early May from around about 1977 until 1989, fans would converge on the town for a weekend of relaxed fun and fan networking. And in a town as crazy as Blackpool did anyone even notice the occasional Sea Devil or long scarf?