I was watching Country Tracks on BBC 1 this morning – well it was on and I was in the same room.

They were doing what might as well have been an episode of Coast; from Liverpool to Morecambe – with a diversion up the Manchester Ship Canal – taking in along the way Antony Gormley‘s statues on Crosby Beach, and Blackpool.

A lot of the programme consisted of clips shown on previous BBC shows. The introduction to Morecambe was an extract from a 2006 edition of Coast which I remember well as it alerted me to the refurbishment of the Midland Hotel which I looked at last year and Big Rab has photographed recently.

The show is on the BBC iPlayer. For how long I don’t know. (The content wasn’t working when I tried though. The relevant bit will be towards the end.) For a programme called Country Tracks it spent a lot of time in cities and towns this week.

The presenter got to stay the night in the hotel and we saw several shots of the inside and the Eric Gill artworks.

By a curious coincidence yesterday’s Guardian Review (I only get round to reading that bit on a Sunday) had an article about another English sea-side Art Deco extravagance, Marine Court, St Leonards, whose structure is modelled on the liner RMS Queen Mary. Marine Court opened just in time to be made a bit of a white elephant by the Second World War. It’s quite stunning.

I’ve already featured the former Woolies buildings in Kirkcaldy, Dumbarton, Morecambe and Dundee.

Here’s a couple more Art Deco former Woolies premises located in Fife.

The first is in St Andrews, photographed still in its Woolies livery. Nice detailing above the windows and on the roof line. (It has been converted to a Nisa shop since the photo was taken.)

The second is in Cowdenbeath. Not so much ornamentation on this one; just the roof detail really. As you can see, it’s a Poundstretcher now. (I took the picture before Saturday’s game.)

Also in Morecambe close to the Midland Hotel on the sea front on the other side of the road were these two Art Deco buildings.

The first was once a Woolworths.

The other houses a Hitchens

There was one more Deco-ish building much further along the front but time was getting short so I didn’t photograph it.

Leaving Haworth we headed back home through Lancashire, skirting Bolton and Blackburn (plenty signposts but nary a glimpse of it from the M65) on our way to the M6 and north. We came off at junction 33A to detour into Morecambe. Mistake. The road takes you through Lancaster and the traffic was a crawl, if that.

Our destination was Morecambe – we passed the local football ground in the way in. As a seaside town we expected it to be in something of a decline but it looked in good enough nick, thriving even.

The goal was of course the Midland Hotel: designed by Oliver Hill. Its vintage is 1933 and it’s one of Britain’s signature Art Deco buildings. It has of course been featured in the Poirot TV series.
More recently, starting in 2006, it has been restored. It reopened in 2008.

This photo was taken from a distance and shows the curvature of the frontage.

Here is a stitch of three I took from the car park. The stitching seems to have flattened the perspective.

The entrance pillars are nice, too. Could do with a bit of weeding, though.

Closer in to the cylindrical tower. You can see the Eric Gill sea horse sculptures adorning the top. The glazing seems okay on the tower but the room windows look wrong.

The view from the south. Eyes poked out on this side?

The view from the south west, (the promenade, essentially.) To my mind the restoration has put in too much glass here. No doubt it protects the patrons from bracing winds.

The north side. Lovely curved entranceway and canopy – plus the glazing on the doors looks right.

Friends of the Midland Hotel website is here.