Government cash for the former Abingdon Street Post Office arrives alongside a five-year plan to make the town’s history work for its people
Blackpool has a new plan for looking after its past, and the money is already coming in to act on it.
The council has approved a new Heritage Investment Strategy for 2026-31 in the same week government funding was announced to protect two of the town’s historic buildings.
Blackpool Council will use £850,000 from the Heritage at Risk Capital Fund to start restoring the former Post Office on Abingdon Street, in the first phase of a wider programme to bring the Grade II-listed landmark back into use as a community-led cultural and creative hub.
See more from inside the abandoned post office here
Separately, the Church of the Sacred Heart in Blackpool has secured £145,866 from the Places of Worship Renewal Fund for repairs.
The new Heritage Strategy sets out how the town can protect its buildings, collections and traditions, and put them to work for community, learning and regeneration. It proposes a Heritage Lead to coordinate projects, a Heritage Programme Board to drive progress, and a stronger network of local heritage organisations. The council’s executive committee approved it on Monday 12 October.
Four priorities run through the document. The first is celebrating what makes Blackpool distinctive – from the Tower and the tramways to cherished buildings with no formal designation, along with the archives and collections that hold the town’s memories.
The second is caring for places and the environment, including the coastline, parks and public spaces, with an emphasis on low-carbon ways of managing historic buildings.
The third is connecting people and heritage, which means access, but also community ownership and the chance for people to see their own experiences reflected.
The fourth is building the capacity of the Heritage Network so organisations can share knowledge and deliver joint projects.
The strategy was shaped by hundreds of responses to workshops and an online public survey that ran throughout August, and campaigners used it to press for the restoration of North Pier, which has been part of the town since 1863.
Councillor Lynn Williams, leader of Blackpool Council and cabinet member for tourism, arts and culture, said heritage was found not only in buildings but in “collections and archives, community memories, traditions, cultural activity and our town’s natural environments”.
“Fundamentally, heritage is about people,” she said. “It is created, sustained and given meaning by communities, volunteers, organisations and individuals.”
The first phase or restoration to Abingdon Post Office, which the council bought last year, will pay for urgent stabilisation, repair and weatherproofing, including roof and stonework repairs, to secure the building. It will also allow the council to progress plans for a future fit-out as a community and cultural venue, providing a base for events, creative activity and community engagement in central Blackpool.
The building, which dates from 1910, closed as a post office counter in 2007 and has since fallen into disrepair. The Capital Fund, now in its second year, backs historic buildings at greatest risk, with an emphasis on their role in their communities.
The council points to its record of restoring its heritage assets and protecting them for future generations. In 2010 it bought the Tower and Winter Gardens in a £38.9m deal, bringing both into public ownership for the first time and restoring them in the years since.
The strategy comes at a timely moment for the town, with the Winter Gardens turning 150 in 2028, and 2029 bringing 150 years of the Illuminations and 135 since the Tower and Grand Theatre opened. Those anniversaries are central to Blackpool’s bid to be UK City of Culture 2029, which it was shortlisted for this week (22 October). The £10m prize would see a year-long programme of events across the town.
