The Seafront

North Promenade (above) is north of the Pier with sand dunes and miles of golden sands. The most popular beach, and the main tourist area, is along South Promenade (below). In May 2009 this beach was awarded a Quality Coast Award by the Keep Britain Tidy Group.

 South Promenade

There are many attractions along South Promenade suitable for families with young children: Apart from the golden sands, there's gardens, a miniature train, trampolines, children's rides, boating, water walkers, miniature golf course & crazy golf & ice cream stalls. Also, Salters Wharf Pub/Restaurant & St.Annes Pier.

The Island Cinema & Entertainment Centre has closed though it may reopen if a purchaser is found.

If that hasn't worn the kids out then in the summer there are donkey rides and a bouncy castle on the sands. There is an indoor swimming pool; at the moment (May 2010) it is closed due to local council cutbacks but should reopen in August 2010.

	Lytham St.Annes Lifeboat is stationed in the Lifeboat House on South Promenade; also the RNLI gift shop.
The original St.Annes lifeboat house (1883) is in Eastbank Road. Near the bandstand (1897) is a statue of a lifeboatman, commemorating Britain's worst ever lifeboat disaster in 1886.

The gardens on South Promenade were laid out in 1896 and the Alpine Gardens (opposite the Grand Hotel) 1907-14. There are some ornate Victorian shelters and fountains.

St.Annes Pier & Jetty

St.Annes Pier (1883) has an amusement arcade, small ten-pin bowling alley, shops & cafe.

On a clear day there are good views across the Ribble Estuary to Southport and the Welsh Mountains. 

The pier was officially opened in 1885 and the mock-tudor entrance was built in 1899. Look above the entrance and you can see a bay window; this contains the boardroom of the St.Annes Land & Building Company and 100 years ago the directors could watch as the wild expanse of sand dunes was transformed into the new resort of St.Annes.

At the pierhead (the seaward end) there were two Edwardian pavilions, a theatre (1904) and an orchestral hall (1910), but both were destroyed by fire (1974 & 1982) resulting in the demolition of the pierhead in 1984. The jetty was left standing in splendid isolation.

Since 1985 the remaining pier structure has been renovated & improved, funded by income from the amusement arcade and shops.

Access to the remaining open promenade deck at the far end is in the summer only. During the renovations in 1985, this open section was stripped of the steel used to widen it in 1901-04 and the original arched supports, designed by Alexander Dowson (1883), were revealed. When first constructed the whole pier was this width and was far more graceful as it stood twice as high over the sands, and the tide came in twice a day.

The old jetty, St.Annes Pier. Only one storey of the jetty can now be seen but there were originally three storeys and a deep channel passed in front, suitable for steamboats which took passengers to Lytham, Southport & Blackpool.

When a new shipping channel to Preston was created in the 1890s the old channel silted up and the level of sand on St.Annes beach rose by over 20 feet. Since then, it is only on very high tides that the water covers the foreshore.

 North Promenade & Beach to Squires Gate.

Next to the pier car-park, in the small North Promenade Garden, there is a statue of comedian Les Dawson. North of here is a good beach and miles of sand dunes to explore stretching to the boundary with Blackpool.

On a good day this is a pleasant walk and from the top of the dunes there are views of the Old Links Golf Course, Blackpool Airport, Pleasure Beach and Tower. Looking much further inland across the flat plain of the Fylde, you can see the backbone of England, the Pennines.

In Victorian times, several charities built convalescent homes amongst the dunes. Some were for children recovering from illness, and others allowed poor children from the polluted industrial towns to have a holiday at the seaside. The Ormerod Home and Manchester Home stood near the sand yacht club and have been demolished.

The Blackburn Home stood further along the coast and has also been demolished and replaced by luxury apartments.

The one remaining example is the Thursby Convalescent Home for Burnley Children, Clifton Drive, built by Sir John Scarlett Thursby, a Burnley colliery owner; it opened in 1905 and is now a nursing home.

Alongside the Thursby Home is a compound for the diggers and wagons which extract sand from the beach. The sand is sold to contractors and there's no shortage because the beach level is over 20 feet higher than it was in 1900.

On the other side of Clifton Drive is Lytham St.Annes Nature Reserve which was created in 1968 to protect some of the last remaining sand dunes. On the other side of the railway (opened as the Blackpool & Lytham Railway in 1863) is the Old Links Golf Club (formed 1901); this is a links course created from sand dunes and farmers fields when the club moved to this site in 1911.

 Next to the Nature Reserve is Squires Gate Holiday Camp which dates from the 1930s when hundreds of tents and caravans occupied the land in the summer. In the 1960s Pontins developed the camp which was hugely popular. Pontins closed in 2009 and there are plans to build 350 homes on the site.

Continuing to the boundary with Blackpool, just after the sand dunes, an immense building (left) is under construction. This will be the new tram depot for Blackpool.

The boundary with Blackpool is known sometimes as 'Squires Gate' (gate onto the Squire of Lytham's land) but also as 'Starr Gate' (named after the starr grass, planted to stabilise the sand dunes).

Running directly inland from this point is Squires Gate Lane and on the corner is The Dunes Cafe.

A brief walk inland will take you over the railway bridge and past Blackpool Airport (site of the first Official Aviation Meeting in England, 1909).

Beyond the Airport is the Halfway House pub and opposite are some large stores including Currys, Comet, Maplins, PC World, Staples and Morrisons.

There is a railway station at Squires Gate (trains hourly) and buses (no.7 & no.11) every few minutes to Blackpool and Lytham St.Annes.