A journey north, far beyond our usual patch, and an unusually free-flowing M6, recently gave us the chance to drop in on Morecambe, a town I’ve long wanted to visit for two reasons, both embedded firmly in mid 20th Century culture but in very different ways.

First stop was the Midland Hotel, a moderne icon by architect Oliver Hill, planted firmly on the esplanade opposite the former London Midland and Scottish railway station as that company’s signature destination on the north-west coast. It’s a wonderful example of its kind – long, flowing streamline construction, the minimum of decoration, but a wealth of little art deco touches to delight the eye. Opened in 1933, it had a heyday of less than a decade before it was requisitioned as a hospital for the RAF in the Second World War, and then transferred to the British Transport Commission in 1948 when it began a long slide into disrepair as the British seaside lost its attraction to the stylish upmarket visitor the hotel was aimed at. By the 1980s, when I first started ‘collecting’ deco buildings, its future was uncertain and, like many others of its kind, some of the potential projects to revive it following its closure in 1998 looked either short-lived or ill-conceived. Fortunately, it got the kind of reinvestment it deserved and between 2006 and 2008 it was treated to a complete refurbishment under the management of the Urban Splash company and now is back doing what it should be – acting as an eye-catching landmark and distinguished hostelry. As such, the hotel also relishes in its heritage, with the names of the contributing designers, including sculptor Eric Gill and carpet designer Marion Dorn, reflected in the room names, and the original features, including a wonderful deco map of the neighbouring coastline, are proudly displayed, rather than hidden by modern hoteliery. There are a couple of good articles on line about it, here and here. The nearby former station is worth a visit, too, having been sensitively restored into a combined pub restaurant and arts venue.

After such a good start, we had a real appetite to see what else Morecambe had to offer, but first needed to tick off our other ‘must see’ and make a pilgrimage to the statue of possibly Morecambe’s most famous son, Eric Bartholomew – better known, of course, by his stage surname borrowed from his home town. Unlike some modern statues that try to capture the ‘essence’ of the individual in an oblique fashion, the tribute to Eric Morecambe is a straightforward and loving depiction of the character we grew up with on our TV screens, forever frozen midway through the skip with which he and Ernie Wise left the stage at the end of every show (in Eric’s case, a move adapted to pay homage to Groucho Marx, which only makes him more of a hero in my book). Like the hotel, it stands proudly on the promenade, facing the theatres in which he made his name.

And the promenade itself is a cornucopia of Victorian and Art Nouveau building. Although slightly down at heel in places, the whole front maintains its integrity as the epitome of the British seaside town. There are numerous classic cafes, an Italian ice cream parlour, toy shops, rock shops – all set in distinguished old buildings with a wealth of architectural detail to delight the eye. Sadly, the Winter Gardens were closed, or we could easily have lost another hour or so exploring its interior and relishing in its history hosting the cream of touring seaside entertainers, but we were lucky enough to have time to get far enough along the front to stumble on a more recent addition to the family of cafes. ‘The View’ has been around for some four years, and combines classic cafe offerings with a vintage clothes, bric a brac, and record shop. Ironically, Mrs M and I had just been musing on the unlikelihood of coming across a record shop that had acquired a record collection from people like us, but that appeared to be just what had happened at The View. In amongst a stack of reasonably-priced UK originals was a whole bunch of repros and new recordings from the 1980s rockin’ scene. Needless to say, there aren’t quite so many of them there now…

The View isn’t the only vintage cafe in Morecambe – there’s an equally attractive outlet in the streets just behind the front, featured in the local press when it opened and which looked well worth a visit. Indeed, Morecambe itself is a place we’d dearly like to have a longer mooch around, but that’ll have to wait for another trek north, for we were soon back in the car on our way for our Lake District adventure…