[ Stories ]
Bring Me Sunshine
About
Recent years have been hard on Morecambe.
A classic victim of the cheap and cheerful overseas package holiday, dwindling tourism and unemployment set Morecambe into a seemingly perpetual decline.
By the mid 1990's Morecambe 'qualified' for the title of 'most depressed town in England' with a report revealing the highest number of antidepressants were being doled out, per local health authority per person.
With decreasing trade, high profile closures, unemployment, drugs and crime, Morecambe polled 3rd in a 2003 book 'UK Crap Towns'; a cruel blow to the once internationally renown holiday destination, formerly dubbed, the 'Naples of the North'. The tragic deaths of 21 Migrant Cockle Pickers in 2004 effectively brought the town to its knees.
Fast forward to 2008 and Morecambe is turning towards the future. Morecambe is on the March.
A fearless developer is currently undertaking a multi-million pound restoration of the derelict deco seafront masterpiece; the 'Midland Hotel' whilst an audacious masterplan for the rundown 'West End' area of town details a radical improvement scheme already underway.After a twenty year absence, the towns beauty pageant has returned and 'the Shrimps'; Morecambe's football team are now 'Football League' for the first time in their history.
This story is an ongoing look into the turning tides of Morecambes fortune.
(c) James Ball / James Ball Photography