Pontins Blackpool - A brief history - Slide Show

Before it became Pontins it was known as Squires Gate Holiday Camp. Here's a little photographic tribute to both eras.

The brainchild of Herbert Pye Squires Gate developed during the early 1930s as a camping ground with tents. By the late 1930s the tents had been replaced by over a thousand wooden chalets and in 1939 a huge new dining hall, bar, 'grand piazza' and outdoor swimming pool were built. Pye had spent some years living in California and the architecture and interior designs were very much in that west coast American/Spanish style.

It was sold to Pontins in 1961 for £375,000 and Fred Pontin later remarked it was the best investment he'd ever made. The 38 acre site was soon rebuilt with brand-new chalets arranged in one and two-storey blocks. As it was a full board site all meals were included and were taken in the huge new communal dining room. The chalets were 'hotel style' and lacked any kitchen or lounge facilities. The original Squires Gate entertainment building was retained, refurbished and enlarged.

Later in the 1960s the original outdoor pool was enclosed in a large new building. During the early 1990s the pool building was rebuilt yet again but the original 1939 pool inside survived.

In June 1972 a small Hansa jet plane taking off from the airport next door overshot the runway, careered across the railway lines and smashed into a row of single-storey chalets in the camp, demolishing six of them. The fuselage continued it's journey into a second row of chalets causing further damage before the whole area was engulfed in a huge fireball. 7 people on board the plane were killed with one survivor managing to escape. Miraculously nobody on the ground was inured.

By the 2000s the camp, although still popular, was looking a bit rundown. It's thought there was a deliberate policy to run the camp into the ground so the owners could redevelop the land into more lucrative housing.

In July 2009 a woman died after contacting legionaries disease at the camp and in October of that year the closure was finally announced with the loss of 70 full time jobs. By 2013 the demolition was complete with nothing left standing. Construction of a new housing estate has already begun on the site.