This event has been postponed – new dates to be announced. The Box Office team will be in contact with all customers in due course. Please read the latest statement on our news page.
A series of lectures by Dr Tom Preston
Wednesday 15, 22 & 29 April, 10.30am – 12.30pm
Refreshments included. Maximum of 15 places.
This new course of lectures focuses on Southport’s place in the development of popular entertainment.
As one of the country’s main seaside resorts, the town was renowned for the quality of its high-class venues, including fairgrounds, pier shows, theatres, dance halls and cinemas. The Winter Gardens, Cambridge Hall, Pier Pavilion, and Palais de Danse were among Southport’s main centres of entertainment.
Almost all major celebrities visited the town at one time or another, including such significant figures like P.T. Barnum, Laurel and Hardy, as well as The Beatles. Southport even had its own famous family of showmen, the Samuelsons, theatre impresarios and pioneers of cinema.
This amiable local history course tells the story of popular entertainment in Southport and the local area from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the 1960s, using rarely seen historic pictures, censuses and old newspapers.
There is a good deal of relaxed discussion with minimal written content and it is suitable for both the complete beginner as well as those with some existing knowledge of local history.
