Inside eerie remains of popular Butlin's holiday park 40 years after closure

24 August 2023 , 09:43

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Inside eerie remains of popular Butlin's holiday park 40 years after closure

Pictures show the eerie, abandoned insides of Yorkshire Butlin’s and show a bleak end to what was once one of the UK’s most popular tourist hotspots.

Filey Holiday once welcomed millions of British families to the North Yorkshire coast in its postwar peak, ChronicleLive report. Victorian-style fairground rides, cabarets, amusements, dancing and typical terrible weather defined holidays there. But, as people began to venture further abroad from the 1970s onwards, and this became the norm, Butlins’ campsites like Filey struggled. The remains include chipped, dirty stone fountains, derelict housing blocks and swimming pools full of rubbish.

Butlin’s in Filey once had a capacity of 10,000 people and during the summer peak was rammed full of Britain’s workforce as they enjoyed their holiday and clamoured for a break. It is said the most successful summers saw 175,000 people visit. The campsite was so popular that it had its own branch and station on the north east railway which still remains open.

The site looks very different (lancs.live WS)

Butlins stopped welcoming guests in September 1983 and was finally abandoned altogether in 2001. Demolition of its many parks began in 1989 but not all of its buildings fell. Those that remained resembled Chernobyl-style ghost towns. Retired art and design lecturer Richard Bailey shared his pics of the derelict site and, despite looking like something from an apocalyptic movie, he remembered Filey’s own Butlin’s warmly

He said: "In 2001 while visiting Filey, I was walking my dog along the beach towards Primrose Valley when I went in search of the remains of the old Butlin's holiday camp whereas an 18 year-old-art student I had worked in the summer holidays of 1968. There was still plenty of evidence of what had once been a holiday camp, including the chalets, fountains and remains of the outdoor and indoor pools."

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Now, posh cottage site The Bay Filey stands on the old Butlin's site. Its luxury suites include jacuzzis and steam rooms, plus an on-site gastropub. The wooden cottages strike a different note to Richard's 20-year-old images of the Butlin's site that meant so much to him - and millions more.

Kieren Williams