The Flying Handbag (Talbot Road) and King's Arms (closed)

From King's Arms to Flying Handbag

Before the Flying Handbag moved to its purpose-built home on Queen Street, it lived on Talbot Road, on the ground floor of the building whose top floor was the Flamingo. That space had been a pub called the King's Arms. After taking on the club upstairs, Basil Newby bought the ground floor too, and the King's Arms became the Flying Handbag.

The two venues were made for each other. Internal doors linked the pub and the club, so a night could begin with drinks and cabaret downstairs and drift up to the dancefloor as the evening went on.

The early 1990s

Photographs taken between 1991 and 1995 show the Flying Handbag and the Flamingo full of people dressed up, dancing and laughing. Those pictures have since been exhibited in Blackpool, and the man who took them remembers the period simply as party time. Exact dates for the rename are hard to pin down, but the Handbag was clearly established by the early 1990s.

Moving on

The Talbot Road building was bought by the council for the Talbot Gateway redevelopment. On 20 January 2006 the Flying Handbag opened in its new building on the corner of Queen Street and Lord Street, a week before the Flamingo reopened round the corner. The licence for the old premises at 170–172 Talbot Road was given up that March, and the building was demolished in 2007. A supermarket now covers the site.

The name lives on at 44 Queen Street, where the Flying Handbag is still trading. If you stop by, raise a glass to the King's Arms. Times and details can change, so check before you go.