Statues and Sculptures
The area does not have many public statues or sculptures, but the better-known ones are listed here. I have not mentioned the stone obelisks, such as Blackpool War Memorial and other cenotaphs - unless they are accompanied by a statue.
The Three Graces frieze was carved on the side of the Temple of the Arts Photographic Studio on Church Street in 1853. The building is now the Bella Pasta Restaurant. The frieze was restored in 1988, but was damaged during building work, and replaced by a plastic copy.
The Clifton Memorial Fountain was erected in Lytham Square in 1882. It was moved to Station Square in 1920.
A Life-sized bust of Queen Victoria was unveiled in the Town Hall in 1904.
Thornton War Memorial was unveiled at Four Lane Ends on the 11th of November 1923. Its statue was sculpted by Albert Toft.
St Annes War Memorial was unveiled in Ashton Gardens on the 12th of October 1924. The statues around the memorial were sculpted by Walter Marsden.
The two bronze Medici Lions were placed in Stanley Park. They stand on large stone pedestals and are copies of the originals in Florence. John Magee of the brewers Magee Marshall and Co. Ltd donated them in 1926.
Fleetwood War Memorial was unveiled in the Memorial Park in 1927, and dedicated to the memory of Fleetwood’s war dead by Admiral Sir William Goodenough. The statue was sculpted by Herbert Tyson Smith.
Helter Skelter was erected in 1995 by Lancashire County Council as a kind of “welcome to Blackpool” monument on the Ashworth Road Roundabout on Yeadon Way. Its sculptor was David Annand.
Three carved Portland stone Conch shells, incorporating flat portions to serve as seating were installed in Birley Street. They were sculpted by Philip Bews in 1997.
Two sculptures of Ballerinas by David Annand were installed at the East end of Clifton Street in 1997. See the picture above.
Magician Richard De Vere and his dog Schnorbitz were commemorated with a bronze statue, erected in front of the Pleasure Beach Casino in 1997.
Welcome Home, a bronze statue by Anita Lafford, showing a mother with her daughter and their dog, waving their man off to sea, was erected near the Lifeboat Station on the Promenade at Fleetwood in 1998.
Acrobats, by Glynn Williams was erected in Bank Hey Street in 1999.
A sculpture of A Seaside Postcard by Judith Bluck was erected in the Pleasure Beach park in 1999.
The Fertility Statue was unveiled at Ripley’s “Believe it or Not Odditorium” on Ocean Boulevard in 1999.
The statue of Eros was installed on the roundabout on Amounderness Way, Fleetwood in 1999. It was bought by the Lofthouse family of Fleetwood, and the original aluminium statue was replaced by one in bronze in 2006.
A statue of a traditional Lytham Shrimper was unveiled in Lytham’s Lowther Gardens Lake in 2003.
“Daliesque” statues of “L’Elephant-Giraffe” and two stilt walkers were erected outside the Bling ride at the Pleasure Beach in 2004, being moved to the front of the Globe Theatre in 2005. They were designed and sculpted in-house by Dougie Stills and his team.
A bronze statue of Stanley Mortensen was placed outside the Mortensen Stand at the Bloomfield Road stadium in 2005. It was made by local sculptor Peter Hodgkinson.
The Great Promenade Show comprises revolutionary sculptures, located on the Promenade at South Shore. It comprises:
High Tide Organ by Liam Curtin and John Gooding - 2000
Eight large pipes connect from a 60metre stretch of the sea wall to a tall curved fin-like form on the promenade, which houses eighteen organ pipes. Air pressure created by incoming seawater produces a series of musical chords, varying in complexity and volume according to weather conditions.
Desire by Chris Knight - 2001
An abstract sculpture 8metres high, contrasting rusty steel with shiny stainless steel spikes, it was inspired by Blackpool’s reputation as a destination for ‘dirty weekends’, and its hidden fetish scene. It casts the shadow of a spiky heart on the promenade.
The Frankenstein Project by Tony Stallard - 2001
Like a sinister exhibit in one of Blackpool’s Victorian freak shows, the skeleton of a killer whale made from pulsating dark blue neon can be viewed through portholes within a metal tank like a decompression chamber.
Water Wings by Bruce Williams - 2001
Designed to be viewed in motion from the adjacent tram track and road, the photographic image of a swimming child, laser cut into an 8meter long curved stainless steel screen gradually resolves and disappears again as the viewer moves past.
Glam Rocks by Peter Freeman - 2001
Inspired by Las Vegas and the Blackpool Illuminations, three large pebble-like modelled shapes glitter after dark, as hundreds of fibre optic light points on their surfaces slowly change colour and sparkle.
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Michael Trainor - 2002
Blackpool is known as the “ballroom capital of Britain”. This rotating ball, 6metres in diameter and covered in almost 47,000 mirrors, has been claimed as the world’s largest mirror ball, and is named after the 1969 film about a ballroom marathon.
The Sound of the Wind Looks Like This by Stephen Hurrel - 2003
A circle of nine columns, three of which incorporate wind turbines and anemometers, and control the other six light columns that change colour with the direction and velocity of the wind.
Life as a Circus by Sir Peter Blake - 2004
Figures of circus entertainers cast in bronze reflect the artist’s predilection for imagery from the world of fairground and circus entertainers, as well as the fact that Blackpool has the only permanent indoor circus in the UK.
Swivelling Wind Shelters by Ian McChesney with Atelier One - 2004
Three 8metre high, stainless steel shelters turn like weather vanes, keeping their occupants away from the prevailing wind. The graceful sculptural form of the shelters, shaped like whales’ flukes, is structured like an aircraft wing, vibrating in strong gusts of wind.
Blackpool Rocks by Bruce McLean and William McLean - will be erected in 2008
In sunlight, a 10 metre tall reflector tower captures the sun rays and directs them through a 5metre high prism. This casts a refracted rainbow of coloured light across seven stands on which boulders of varying sizes sit. The work is also designed to have a nocturnal presence, utilising artificial light.