Jukeboxes and the age of the coffee and milk bar
This map provides a guide to where the most popular coffee and milk bars of the 1950s and 60s were located in Blackpool’s town centre – providing the youth of the day access to the latest vinyl singles on a jukebox.
Click on numbers for more information
The Beehive, Dickson Road
“Toasted sandwiches were iconic; everybody loved a toasted
sandwich at The Beehive!” - Linda
The Top Ten, Dickson Road
The Bamboo, Dickson Road
Hawaiian Eye, George Street
Roaring 20’s, King St
“The Roaring 20’s was definitely the in-place to be in the mid 60’s, it was always busy and had a great Jukebox!” –
Wendy
The Golden Nugget, Cookson St
Casa Romano, King St
Talk Of The Town, Caunce Street
The Record Salon, Church Street
The Coffee House, Church Street
Piccolo, Church Street
Empress Coffee, Church Street
Twisted Wheel, Coronation Street
Wimpey Bar, Sefton Street
Ismails, Birley Street
Map design – Molly Bland.
In the 1950s a British jukebox industry, based in large part in Blackpool and Lytham, flourished by creating a distinctive, original and quirky machine that owed little in its design to its US equivalent.
British teenagers made coffee bars their own; places where they could meet, display their own (often Italian-influenced) fashions, watch and listen and, sometimes, dance to a range of live acts.
Coffee bars were cheap and coffee had no legal age limit. They were also free from the influence of schools and the church.
Coffee bars had their own style, evident in the names and décor which distinguished them from each other and from the pubs and dance halls frequented by the older generation. The coffee bars and jukeboxes fused American-influenced music with European-influenced design to generate a range of British music performance and machines
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