Boarding Houses, Blackpool
- Artist: Chris Steele-Perkins
- Date: 1980–9
- Medium: Photograph, dye destruction on paper
- Dimensions: image: 255 x 382 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “Boarding Houses Blackpool” by Chris Steele‑Perkins, a single print from his 1980–9 series The Pleasure Principle. It’s a colour Cibachrome photograph made with dye‑destruction on paper, which gives the image a slightly faded, painterly quality while still keeping sharp detail.
The picture shows a row of boarding houses in Blackpool, a coastal town in the 1980s. The frame is full of everyday life: people walking along the promenade, children playing at the sea, a group of teenagers on scooters – all captured in their casual motion. Steele‑Perkins was trying to document the public rituals that people perform while chasing happiness; he calls them “pleasure” and studies how they cut across class and place.
The print fits neatly into his larger survey that ranges from sport to politics to countryside pastimes, even including a portrait of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In his own words, “I wanted to re‑orientate myself… looking through this haze of signals with a curious eye.” That line echoes in the busy street scene: people’s faces and gestures hint at larger social patterns while still remaining intimate moments.
In short, this image invites us to step back into 1980s Britain and watch how everyday leisure becomes a subtle narrative about identity, community and aspiration.
See it in person
Boarding Houses, Blackpool is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
