25 years on: Lancaster photographer captures Morecambe tourist spots and The Midland in the year 2000

For our latest feature on the year 2000, the focus is on Morecambe which faced yet another crossroads.

Just the year before, Queen Elizabeth II had unveiled the Eric Morecambe statue, the jewel in the crown of the Tern Project which had transformed the town’s Promenade with public art.

However, just a short stroll from the new statue, Morecambe’s famous Art Deco hotel was in a sorry state as shown in some of Dave’s photographs taken in August 2000.

“It was falling to bits,” wrote Dave in his photographic diary.

The manager was keen for him to take pictures of the hotel even in its poor state of repair and let Dave roam around the building although he found most of the doors locked.

Just a year later, the hotel was in such a bad state that even demolition was threatened but in 2003, award winning property developers stepped in to save the Midland and an £11m restoration was completed within five years.

A quarter of a century on, and the Midland Hotel proudly stands adjacent to the site of yet another planned boost to the town – Eden Project Morecambe – due to open in 2028.

Even the original Eden Project in Cornwall wasn’t opened until 2001!

All of the photographs taken by Dave for A Little English City can be viewed online at https://djclark.com/2000, and copies of his book, are available to order at https://www.nextnorth.com/product/a-little-english-city/