Blackpool looks to ‘paint the town’

An innovative new project aims to revitalise Blackpool by painting the town’s business properties in a specially created range of colours inspired by the resort.

The scheme has already recruited 20 businesses and has been backed by Blackpool Pleasure Beach, where it was officially launched.

Ten core colours from the palette and 122 gallons of paint have been used to transform Ocean Boulevard along the promenade, close to the new Boulevard Hotel.

Blackpool-based LeftCoast, an independent arts organisation, in partnership with Johnstone’s Paint, has created the range of paint colours, called ‘Painting the Town’.

The paint has already been made available to companies and community groups to start the physical job of repainting the town.

The aim is to use the paint range across 25 per cent of the town’s commercial floorspace within the next five years.

The ‘Painting the Town’ range will be commercially available, firstly to trade partners then launched to the domestic market in the future.

A percentage of the profits from paint sales will be used by LeftCoast to invest in arts and culture in the town to support resident health and wellbeing.

Each of the 10 core paint colours has its own story – organisers say each is a homage to individual experiences of the town.

They include Ballroom red, Arcade blue, North Pier Pink, Tangerine Coast and Ghost Train purple.