Merelene's Cafe, formerly on Deansgate. In the town centre, but strangely hard to find unless you'd been there before. Stepping through the door was to be transported back into the 1950s; leatherette seating and aluminium tables with a Melamine fascia - a real gem of Modernist design.
Merelene's was my main retreat in Blackpool if the weather got bad. I never saw it really busy and there was always plenty of seating to be had. Although judging by the way they stared at you as the door creaked open it was mainly patronised by regulars, most of whom were elderly. I suspect for them it was one of the few constants in a changing world.
The above picture is looking through the window at night with the brake lights trails reflected in the window.
Merelene's sold things that you thought didn't exist anymore, like those individual marshmallows wrapped in foil and pink wafer biscuits. But her particular speciality was coffee - instant coffee made with steamed milk from a machine on the counter and the addition of heart-stopping amounts of white sugar.
If you look at the images below, you may notice something very unusual. People smoking in a public place! This was a good few years before the smoking ban which sounded the death knell for a lot of establishments that catered for working class people.
In the last image a customer is rolling a cigarette, without once glancing up from his paper.
Sadly, a few years ago, in something described as a 'Regeneration Project', Merelene's was demolished to make way for a car park. You can see it's former location in the Google Streetmap image below.
I have been unable to find any reference to Merelene's anywhere else on the web, so this may be it's only memory. Please get in touch if you know different.
I've wanted to see this place for years. I always used to go with my mum as a child for a vanilla slice. :D Thank you so much.
ReplyDelete