May has soon rolled up and for this month I really wanted a change as I have been close to the deadline the last two months. This months roll of Ilford HP5 in my Pentax SP500 was completed with a little help from my friend Keith Sharples, who paid my wife and I a visit for the first time since covid restrictions were eased.
We had planned on having a wander with a camera or two during his visit and that day arrived in the second half of May. We headed to Southport, a seaside town on the west coast of England just north of Liverpool, which has seen better days. It has still got a couple of things going for it, one of those being Lord Street, the main thoroughfare and shopping street in the town.
We made a couple of stops along the route, first at Parbold Hill for a landscape shot or two and Parbold itself where we made good use of the boats on the canal and the old windmill. I wish the sun could have broken through the clouds but sadly it did not and we tried to make the best of the conditions before continuing onwards to Southport.
A walk along Lord St in Southport, with it's ornate verandas running the length of the street, was once the pinnacle of a day at the seaside for many folks living in South Lancashire. Folk from Wigan would hop on the train during "wakes week" to enjoy a day out for some sea air and relaxation away from the mines and the mills. Southport was very busy during that time as holiday makers and day trippers descended upon the town from far and wide.
Sadly the rise of cheap package holidays to Spain began a decline in the number of visitors from the 1960's onwards and the pandemic did it no favours at all. The number of empty shops is a sad sight to see, but there is hope that things will improve as we try to get back to some semblance of normality.
The Scarisbrick Hotel was once the place to be for high society and many a day tripper has enjoyed a cream tea there over the years. It may not be as exclusive today, but it's presence is still a welcome sight. The Royal Arcade and Wayfarers Arcade are still open with the Royal Arcade having plenty of traders within it's walls. The Wayfarers has basically become a relic of bygone times, the only businesses in there being coffee shops and cafes and a couple of art galleries.
The further north we walked along Lord St beneath the ornate verandas, the more empty shops we saw so we decided to head across the road to photograph some civic buildings and the Band Stand that Keith has performed on, he plays the Tuba in a brass band. It was there we had to abandon our photowalk as the rain came down. We quickly crossed the road again to shelter beneath the veranda and made our way back to Keith's car to head home.
We didn't get the light we desired, but that's ok. Southport is still a nice place to take photos and here are a few of mine shot with my trusty Pentax SP500 and Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 30mm f/3.5 Lydith lens. I developed the film in Kodak HC-110 dilution B, scanned it with my Ion Slides2PC 35mm scanner and tidied it up with Affinity Photo. I have also placed them and more in my Frugal Film Project 2022 album on Flickr, you can visit it using the link below. We had a decent day out and not even a drenching at the end could spoil the day for us. We really must do it again sometime. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did taking them. It was a fun day out.
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