Just a few yards from the glittering lights of the illuminations and the endless row of tourist attractions on Blackpool's Promenade sits York Street.
On an overcast Wednesday, a reflection of the town's famous tower can be seen in a puddle. And at just 600 metres in length, this nondescript town centre street contains two things which are found in abundance in Blackpool.
One is a car park, the other is lots of guest houses.
On the face of it, York Street might seem typical and unremarkable. By the junction with Dale Street stands 6-8 Charles Street; a large semi-detached property.
At one time the two prominent homes, which no doubt have many bedrooms, would have been occupied by a family of considerable wealth. But not anymore, and clearly not for a very long time.
"It's been like that for at least 10 years," says local carpet-fitter Mark Buntain. "It's the side of Blackpool that the tourists don't see and nobody seems to care."
Mark has undertaken work for many private landlords and bedsit owners over the years. "They always do the absolute bare minimum," Mark, who was born and bred in Blackpool adds.
"One time I was doing work on a property and the floor in the bathroom was rotten. Instead of removing all the floor, the owner said 'just cut out a square and replace that bit'."
According to Land Registry documents, obtained by LancsLive, 6-8 York Street has been owned by the same person since at lease 2000.
Hotels are a vital part Blackpool's tourism economy and signs declaring "no vacancies" are a common.
Yet, surprisingly, the town has dozens which have been neglected to the point where they can only accurately be described as derelict and dilapidated.
On the other side of the road to the ramshackle semis in York Street is the former Carlton House hotel. The now dilapidated double-fronted property was last sold for just £90,000.
A hotel license was granted to a woman by Blackpool Council in August 2005, according to to documents seen by LancsLive, but was suspended in 2012 due to non-payment of the Annual Retention Fee.
Google Maps photographs of the hotel show the property looking well-kept and clean with freshly-painted stonework and gleaming window canopies in 2009. Just five years later paint on the brickwork has begun to peel and the curtains are hanging loose from the inside of the once-impressive ground floor bay window.
By 2017 the property had fallen into considerable disrepair. Fast forward to 2022 and the downstairs windows have been boarded up - and remain in place today.
There are currently more than 100 Blackpool hotels for sale. And while not all of those are in need of a facelift many look a little worse for wear.
The cheapest leasehold hotel, with 12 bedrooms, is priced at just £18,000 while, for just shy of £90,000, you could buy one with nine rooms outright.
"Round here is bedsit land," says Mark. "The owners are only charging about 15 quid a night. The problem the council have is that there are so many buildings in Blackpool that are rundown; it's a never-ending job for them."
Despite the widely-held belief that neglected properties or signs of vandalism emboldens criminals and encourages more serious disorder - known in the field of criminology as the 'broken window theory' - residents living in these areas of Blackpool don't feel afraid or at risk.
"There isn't a lot of trouble; it's just a bit rundown," says John Davidson, who has just bought a six-bedroom terraced house in Dale Street, which he and his partner are renovating with a view to leasing it to a homeless organisation.
"To be fair, it's Blackpool; you know what you're getting," John adds. "But I like the area. We can go to our local pub and it's just £3 for an all-you-can-eat breakfast."
Directly across the road from John's property is a large commercial premises on the corner with Charles Street. It's seen better days.
Online records show that the building has previously been home to a telecoms marketing business and a homeless charity. Many of the windows are smashed and reinforced steel gates have recently been installed in a side entrance because "kids were getting in" as one local, who believes the property has been "empty forever", says.
The woman, who has lived in Charles Street for 15 years, adds: "I was brought up here, so I've lived round here all my life, it's what I know. But it's not a bad area in terms of crime."
Around 35 years ago, in what was Yates Wine Lodge in Talbot Square, Norman Callaghan met his future wife Maureen. The couple, from Sheffield, are no longer able to visit the bar where they first locked eyes as it was destroyed in an arson attack in 2009.
But they have returned to Blackpool "a few times" since then.
Norman and his wife, who stay at the Ruskin Hotel in the more upmarket northern end of Blackpool, believe the resort has been "left to decay".
"It's not as thriving and vibrant as it used to be," Norman, a retired pub landlord, says. "It wants regenerating, Blackpool, it really needs it. We used to come every year for the lights but now it feels very dated."
Blackpool Council is pragmatic about the problem of abandoned and derelict buildings. Councillor Paula Burdess says she is aware that "these problem properties blight our communities and hinder our economic growth" but forcing owners to face up to their responsibilities isn't always straightforward.
"Empty properties, both residential and commercial, are a national problem and Blackpool suffers from its fair share," she said.
"Many of the commercial empty properties have complex intricate title histories and have been sold numerous times without completing the required legal steps to register official legal ownership. This makes the identification of legal ownership complex and difficult which in turn hinders enforcement.
"That said, Blackpool Council is working hard to remedy these problem properties which blight our communities and hinder our economic growth. Over the last 12 months, we have implemented a robust strategy which focuses attention towards utilising all the statutory tools we have to tackle this problem."
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Statistics released last week by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government revealed that Blackpool is home to seven of the 10 most deprived neighbourhoods in England.
While the national news focused on the fact that one of those was in Reform leader Nigel Farage's constituency of Clacton in Essex the figures painted a bleak picture of Blackpool which was once - and for some still is - the staycation seaside destination of choice.
Councillor Lynn Williams, Leader of Blackpool Council, said: "Deprivation is a complex issue that requires every organisation in Blackpool and at government level to play their part.
"Measures involving crime, health and education are all elements that the council can support, but is not solely responsible for. At an educational level, all our secondary schools are now run by academies and that limits the impact we can have.
"There is no magic bullet that automatically transforms struggling areas into thriving ones. Transformation takes a long time and the impacts aren't felt immediately.
However in areas where the council has specifically intervened with new housing projects at Grange Park and Queens Park, both of those areas have significantly improved according to these rankings. That's the type of impact that can improve places and communities and it's exactly the impact we're now looking to have around Central Drive and Talbot ward.
"We are taking on a huge challenge to improve the lives of every resident in Blackpool. That won't happen overnight, but £2bn is being invested across the town to make it better, create more jobs and create stronger communities.
"In Talbot ward, a lot of the poorest quality houses are being demolished right now as part of our regeneration plans to bring over 8,000 workers and students into the area. Equally, around Central Drive we are starting to buy houses for a £90m housing transformation, which will transform that area.
"Other areas - Claremont and South Shore - clearly need regeneration too and we are looking at community-led masterplans so they can also receive regeneration funding in the future.
"A lot of the work has been led by Blackpool and the council, and we hope that this data will strengthen our ask for a fair funding settlement from the government, as our town has been under funded nationally for decades, meaning that we are constantly having to do more with less."
"Boarded up hotels and run-down streets are a clear result of years of neglect by those in positions of power. Blackpool has so many positives and lots of great areas but streets like these drag the town down and that needs to change.
"With government backing, we are getting on with the job of clearing poor housing and rebuilding whole neighbourhoods and we can and will go further. Local authorities can raise council tax on places left empty and, under this government, councils are being given more powers to deal with empty homes and empty commercial properties such as using rental auctions to bring abandoned shops back into use.
"But the scale of the challenge is huge and will require long-term investment to match it. I'm working hard to secure more government funding and to attract private investment in commercial properties by demonstrating the huge potential Blackpool holds.