How wonderful to read Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen’s panegyric on Blackpool illuminations (‘Where design gets to take its bra off’: Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on his 20 years with the Blackpool Illuminations, 25 August). My mother was a Blackpool landlady, I grew up there, and – even after nearly 30 years living in Berlin – the resort still has a special place in my heart. Twenty million visitors a year can’t all be wrong.
Llewelyn-Bowen wonders why Blackpool’s unique appeal doesn’t seem to register with people living in the south of England. Look no further than the British Tourist Authority, whose budget is lavished on anywhere but Britain’s great seaside resorts, Blackpool included.
I know this because, working in the media, I am on the receiving end of most of VisitBritain’s PR output to the German public. I once wrote to VisitBritain’s German office decrying its lack of coverage of Blackpool and other resorts, and received the reply: “Blackpool is not a particularly attractive place.”
Julian Allitt
Berlin, Germany
• While the appeal of Blackpool’s illuminations may not have spread beyond the Midlands, the Southend illuminations (deemed at times to be the best in the world) have been brightening our lives since 1935.
They are still going strong, and combined with firework displays, they do much to counter the gloom of autumn and winter for “magnolia-shaded Farrow & Ball-obsessed” southerners, as Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen calls us. And surely Southend’s pleasure pier, the longest in the world at 1.33 miles, rivals Blackpool’s tower? Maybe when the young Llewelyn-Bowen was disporting himself in London, he should have come to Southend on a day trip and gained some inspiration for his endeavours in Blackpool.
Rev Ruth Cartwright
Rayleigh, Essex
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