History of Houndshill Blackpool – how the Site’s Changed

You probably pass, or go through the shopping centre every time you’re in Blackpool town centre, and never give it a thought. But do you ever think about the history of Houndshill Blackpool and how the site’s changed over the years?

As publishers of Visit Fylde Coast we remember various parts of the history of this area ourselves. Like we say it’s central to the town. Why don’t you add your memories? Leave a comment below, and you can email your photos to jane@theRabbitPatch.co.uk

Thanks once again to Nick Moore and information from his amazing History of Blackpool.

Why it’s called Houndshill

The Hound Hill in Layton was known as the northern boundary of the Hawes. So called because coursing events on Layton Hawes used to start from there. Unleashed from a small rise, the hounds ran southwards across the open flat moss land.

A small cabin railway station called Hound Hill opened on 6 April 1863 – the northern end of the new line from Lytham. Shortly afterwards, the thoroughfare became known as Hounds Hill. By 1890 it was a short street from the Promenade to meet with Adelaide Street. It even had its own Hounds Hill Post Office. The Hounds Hill Hotel stood between Bank Hey Street and the Promenade. Later called the Royal Hotel, it was eventually replaced by the Woolworths building.

Part of Hounds Hill still exists today and you’ve probably walked along it hundreds of times without realising! It’s the pedestrianised walkway between Coral Island and the new Sands Building. Running along the northern boundary of the site, as you’d expect, Hounds Hill gave its name to the new, small railway station.

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Hounds Hill Railway Station

In 1877 the station is massively enlarged. At that time it’s a building of “ornamental brick-work, with stone dressings, and a roof of glass, supported by ironwork. In the centre of the square is a wooden structure, comprising two booking offices and parcel and left luggage offices”.

In June 1878 it’s renamed Blackpool Central Station. It had four timber platforms and a horse driven turntable. There were 6 tracks, and three 200-yard-long platforms, with several other waiting rooms and offices. Central Station’s wooden platforms were replaced in 1883, with stone flags on brick walls. The number of railway tracks between South Shore and Central Stations quadruples between 1899 and 1900.

The Biggest Station for the Biggest Seaside Town!

Did you know? That Mister Blackpool, Sir John Bickerstaffe, was born in a small cottage at Caunce Square in Hounds Hill. Elected a town councillor in 1880, made an Alderman in 1887, he served as Mayor in 1889 and 1891. In 1905, he became a Justice of the Peace, and awarded the Freedom of Blackpool in 1912. John Bickerstaffe was intimately involved in many of the most important developments in the town, and knighted for his efforts in 1926.

Behind the new façade, in 1901 Central Station was completely rebuilt, to open at Easter. It now had 14 platforms – exactly the same as Paddington Station in London. This re-development led to the coastal line becoming the main route into Blackpool. By 1905 it was officially the busiest in Europe. But with the station closed after the Beeching Cuts, the site of the station building was later to become the Coral Island complex.

Now disused, the space where the railway lines once brought happy holiday makers to Blackpool quickly became the site of Central Car Park. Of course it’s finally undergoing a full transformation to become the site of the new Blackpool Central leisure destination.

• See today’s plans for the redevelopment of the Central Station site

Old Buildings, once on the Houndshill Site

Victoria Congregational Chapel on Victoria Street. The last service in the original church was held on 26 March 1964. In 1968, it moved to the Methodist Mission on Newton Drive, and the old building on Victoria Street was demolished and is now covered by the Houndshill.

The Alpine Hall and Borough Bazaar were built opposite Hounds Hill Railway Station in 1860. The Bazaar was renamed Feldman’s Theatre in 1937, before being sold to Jimmy Brennan in 1952. He renamed it the Queen’s Theatre.

Building on Albert Road began in 1878 on Blackpool’s third fire station – on land now occupied by the Houndshill.

In 1888 Mr Weldon’s Circus Building opened at Hounds Hill. It was Blackpool’s first permanent circus.

Municipal Offices had opened in 1911 on Sefton Street, which also housed Public Health. This building included offices, testing and disinfecting rooms. Uniquely, it also included a Public Health Laboratory for research, where the towns Sanitary Inspector could lead the drive to reduce death from illness and disease. It had cost £6000 to build and was demolished in 1975 to make way for the Houndshill Shopping centre.

The First Houndshill Blackpool Shopping Centre

We always came on holiday to Blackpool each year, and stayed in a holiday flat on Alfred Street, which belonged to family friends. I’d have been about seven or eight in those years before work began on the first Houndshill Shopping Centre. I clearly remember walking to the beach every day, through a warren of streets which were later redeveloped. Ladened up with our deckchairs, bags, buckets and spades.

Do you remember what it looked like back then? This photo is from the top of the Tower.

The First Shopping Centre Opens

The new Houndshill Shopping Centre took the space of the former maze of these old buildings. The Bürgermeister of Blackpool’s new “Twin Town” Ernst Wilczok officially opened it on 29 August 1980, helped by then Blackpool Mayor Colin Hanson.

We asked whether you remember this terracotta frieze? Darren from AdventureMe told us “The terracotta frieze that you mention above is now located inside the Pleasure Beach, on the track of the grand prix ride opposite the entrance into the station of the Icon ride. Apparently it was quite controversial with it’s nudity. The Thompsons thought it was nonsense and moved it to the park instead.”

This next photograph is on the wall in the meeting room, upstairs in the Management Suite. You can clearly see the shape and structure of the first Houndshill Blackpool in this shot.

We clearly remember the first incarnation of the Houndshill site. Do you? The next photo is the Houndshill portion of the photo, with some landmarks picked out.

Remember the old Houndshill in the Town Centre?

1. Old Tower Buildings along Coronation Street, later demolished to make way for the latest phase of development. Used as a temporary car park in 2020 – now being totally redeveloped as the new IMAX cinema and Wilkinson’s store.
2. Another temporary car park. The bottom corner of this block was Debenhams. In 2022 the top right corner is New Look.
3. The multi-story car park entrance was in this corner – you could get to it from either of these two roads. Beatties toy shop was just inside this entrance to the first mall.
4. Do you remember this bit of the multi storey car park? Goodness me it was an education! A new section of multi storey was now open but you had to drive through this old bit to get out of the car park. Put it this way, it would have made a good location set for a 1970s mafia movie!
5. The back entrance to C&A, later TK Maxx. At this time you could cut round the corner where the side entrance is to come out against the old Argos (now the Job Centre). It’s the entrance to the loading bay now. Remember Hesketh fish and chip shop, in that little bit of black roofed building to the right of our number 5?
6. Coronation Rock – still there now but taken over by Master Henry’s in 2022.
7. And to orientate you, this is McDonalds corner.
8. This small road in the photo is the access ramp to the multi story car park.

Shops in the First Houndshill Blackpool

The three-acre site had 40 shop units, including Goldberg’s department store. Blackpool could now offer visitors and residents over one million square feet of shopping space.

The first Houndshill Shopping Centre development included:

• Beatties toy and model shop,
• Lawleys china,
• Timpsons shoes,
• Benetton,
• Half Price or Less (now known as Home Bargains) which closed in February 2006 when the next phase of development began
• In February 1987 Hounds Hill Post Office and the Jasmine House Chinese restaurant on Adelaide Street both closed. They’re now part of the Waterstones book shop.
• The Coronation Rock shop (now Master Henry’s) is the only established business to survive the redevelopment.

Goldbergs

Brian Johnson now lives in Canada but still calls Blackpool home. He left a comment below about Goldbergs, and sent us this photo.

Brian says “Goldbergs was the flagship store of the mall. I worked there and so did my wife and I left a post about it. But why is it missed it was the biggest store before Debenhams? People came from Manchester to shop there! It was the only Goldbergs store outside of Scotland and it’s other 99 stores. The store was the first in Europe to have electronic central tills for payment and the windows won awards, as did Lewisses.”

Strange that we didn’t remember it – although it is a bit before our time! What Everyone Wants later opened in the unit in January 1991/closed December 2002, and Bewise opened its biggest UK store there in April 2003. We do remember both of those!

Did you know? Miss Hounds Hill was held in 1980 and won by Beverley Cowburn.

Site Redevelopment

The original Houndshill Shopping Centre underwent a radical rebuild and development, to the site that we’re familiar with today.

On 21 August 2008 the new Debenhams store was opened to the public by Coronation Street actress Jenny McAlpine (Fizz). Debenhams is on the exact site of the old Co-op Emporium. Sadly Debenhams closed on 8 May 2021 – but Frasers Group will be moving in!

Other big names to open at the same time included Next, River Island, and Barratts shoes. Along with a new upstairs food hall, the centre is now 400,000 square feet in size.

Clearing Land

Do you remember the old shops and buildings which once faced the side entrance of the Winter Gardens?

There was a cafe and a shop selling ladies clothes. Another was a narrow warren of linked rooms, packed full of artificial flowers and ornaments. See number 1 on the captioned photo above.

In February 2011, The Tower Buildings on Coronation Street/Victoria Street were demolished. The buildings included the Galleon bar and several small shops. Buildings in a block bounded by Adelaide Street, Leopold Grove, and Alfred Street at the back of the Winter Gardens were also bulldozed.

Recent Improvements

The upstairs food court was completely refurbished in 2015. The food retailers all closed while work was carried out.

Future Development for Houndshill Blackpool

The site became a temporary car park after clearance of the Tower Buildings. It was handy for the Winter Gardens but always earmarked for redevelopment as a mixed use leisure and retail space. Unfortunately, a worldwide pandemic and recession hampered progression of the development!

Various plans have been mooted for the site over the years. Including the suggestion of a hotel then the relocation of the Wilkinson’s store from Talbot Road.

However, all of these ambitious ideas are part of a much bigger Blackpool jigsaw. It also included the sale of the centre to Blackpool Council in 2019.

And then the coronavirus pandemic happened…. In April 2020 we left this page here, saying ‘To be continued…‘ A lot has happened since then!

Phase 3 of Houndshill Blackpool and how the site’s changed

As of updating this page three years later in April 2023, the development of the Tower Street car park is almost complete and due to open this year.

Here’s another full page all about this phase of development at the Houndshill

This is the artist’s impression of the new building which will house Wilkinson’s on the ground floor, a huge IMAX cinema and new restaurant.

And here’s a site walk-around video made in January 2023 – it changes every day. We can’t wait to get a look inside!