Tim Christian, Author at Blackpool Social Club

10 Sep

Archaeological Dig at Lytham Hall

Tim Christian0 CommentsHeritage, Local Newsarchaeology, dig, local history, lytham hall

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""] Lytham Hall is instantly recognisable to many residents on the Fylde coast, with its impressive Georgian facade, formal gardens and small but scenic forested areas. The weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of August brought an influx of archaeologists, both professional and voluntary, as the Hall played host to the community archaeology organisation Digventures, who have been brought in to help provide some historical basis for their ongoing project of restoration for the Hall and its grounds. Lytham, recorded as ‘Lidun’, was named as a settlement in the The Domesday Book of 1086 - William the Conqueror’s national…

17 May

The Vocal Local: The madcap misadventures of a Tory MP

Tim Christian0 CommentsColumns & Opinion

In all the hoo-ha around the Scott Benton and the Blackpool South by-election you may have missed that over in the neighbouring constituency of Fylde the incumbent Tory MP has been having a ‘mare of his own. Tim Christian tells the tale. At 3:15am one morning in December last year, Mark Menzies MP, who has held the seat of Fylde for the Conservative party since 2010, telephoned a local Conservative party activist to say he had been locked in his flat by “bad people” and needed £5,000 to pay them to let him out and that this was a “life…

02 Feb

The Vocal Local: A requiem for Upside Down and the first sight of Last Light

Tim Christian0 CommentsColumns & Opinion, Food and Drink

Upside Down has raised the bar for the food and drink scene in Blackpool. Tim Christian describes how it introduced him to so much more than brews and looks forward to its evolution as Last Light The 28th January was the end of an era for the food scene in Blackpool as the artist formerly known as Upside Down closed it doors for the last time under that name. Before Christmas the three-strong team at Upside Down announced their intentions to re-open under a new name and with a new direction. Chef Rob and plant-wrangler (and “Boss”) Resh will be…

08 Nov

The Vocal Local: How patriarchy hurts men too

Tim Christian0 CommentsColumns & Opinion

As International Men's Day approaches, Tim Christian draws a path towards overcoming harmful cultural and societal expectations of masculinity. Let's talk International Men's Day. Firstly, yes, there is one – it’s on November 19th – and secondly I do believe it's an important one to recognise because men are overdue love and attention too. There has rightly been a lot of discussion recently about issues facing women, ranging from treatment in the workplace like the gender pay gap, to incidents of violence and abuse, as covered globally and also locally through efforts like Reclaim Blackpool. It goes without saying that…

26 Aug

Supper Club: Salt of the Earth

Tim Christian0 CommentsFood and Drink, Guide

As the Earth approaches its end Tim Christian craves its salt and is not disappointed. He went to the far flung lands of Carlton for his latest food review and urges you to do the same. The date was Friday the 18th of August 2023 and the world was ending. I had been assured by that paragon of reliable information, the artist formerly known as Twitter – now passing itself off as X (fill in your own joke about Elon Musk being obsessed with his exes) – that this was the date that Nibiru – a supposed disastrous encounter between…

19 Aug

Supper Club: Wallings

Tim Christian0 CommentsFood and Drink, Guide

Ice cream for dinner? Why not? Food reviewer Tim Christian breaks all the rules because he is a grown up and he can! Boredom is a terrible and wonderful thing. It can draw out long days into unbearably dull marathons or it can spur you into impromptu adventures, and the latter was how I dealt with a Saturday night that threatened to drag into tedium. Hanging up some laundry, I text a friend to see what they were up to. Their offer of ice cream for tea was definitely one way to manage it. Messaging each other at 6pm, we…

16 Jun

Supper Club: Paradise Coast with Nerdvana

Tim Christian0 CommentsFood and Drink, Guide

For this week's Supper Club it's a side of pizza and fries with a main course of serious competition for Tim Christian, who heads to Paradise Coast to join Nerdvana's tabletop gaming night. On a cool evening I ventured forth into the ill-omened coastal settlement of Blackpole to keep an appointment made at a local tavern. I found the disreputable looking alleyway where I knew the tavern could be found. Pausing for a moment to turn my collar to the night air, I made my way hence to the brightly-lit and welcoming establishment, bustling and popular despite its seemingly questionable…

09 Jun

Supper Club: Michael Wan’s Wok Inn

Tim Christian0 CommentsFood and Drink, Guide

In his latest instalment of Supper Club, Tim Christian takes his tourist friends to a gem in Blackpool's culinary offer but regrets having over indulged the night before. It's not every food post that starts with a content warning for sexually explicit imagery, but this one does... so... there we are. Last week I wrote about bringing my online friends into my real world realm and taking them out to Common Bar & Kitchen on the Friday night of their arrival. Tacos and burritos followed by a refreshing trip round a number of the fine Blackpool drinking establishments and a…

02 Jun

Supper Club: Common Bar & Kitchen

Tim Christian0 CommentsFood and Drink, Guide

It may have just got a flashy new neighbour but don't overlook Common Bar & Kitchen. Tim Christian found it to be the perfect spot to take his group of visiting friends off the beaten tourist track. A lifeline for me during the lockdown of 2020 (remember that?) was regular online meetups to play controversial shooter game Call of Duty: Warzone. The initially slightly chaotic lineup for these games eventually settled down into a regular group of about four or five of us who would (virtually) get together at weekends and play and chat. The other guys in the chat…

26 May

Supper Club: Seitan Hustle

Tim Christian0 CommentsFood and Drink, Guide

In his latest food review Tim Christian needs to get a room with his meat free kebab My first knowledge of Seitan Hustle was a shared Instagram story for a competition to win a free takeaway, showing a picture of incomprehensible delights, colours and textures jumbled together in a mouth-watering, eye-rolling display. I was… intrigued. This post was, among others, one of the catalysts for me to start writing about food, a dawning realisation that something new and different was on offer in the local area and in Fleetwood of all places (this is not intended as a slight towards…